Can of Worms
by SuperUltraMonkey
Summary: Lloyd and Sheena central. Set a few months after completing the world regeneration journey. Who is behind the appearance of a strange green Exsphere, and are the newly joined worlds now in far greater danger?
1. Death from above 1979

**Summary:** Set a few months after the events of the game, Lloyd and Sheena are on their quest to recover all Exspheres. Things will soon take a turn for the worst however and loyalties will be questioned...

**Warnings: **Character Death(s) (If you can't take it do not read on), Language, and possibly slightly more 'intimate' scenes (Hence the rating). There will also be spoilers, possibly very major ones, so as with most fanfics do not read unless you've already completed the game.

Keep in mind that this is my first fanfic, so if you do leave a review try to make it constructive (Rather than just 'OMG tht sux lol'). Now then... On with the show!

* * *

The early evening sun beamed down upon the top of Gaoracchia forest, and in places managed to pierce through the thick canopy of leaves, glistening on the still-moist plants below. While the forest had thinned out slightly since the joining of the two worlds, it was by no means a bright and sunny place to be. Monsters, bandits and occasionally ninjas from the still-nearby Mizuho always lurking silently in the shadows, which still happened to take up most of the forest. 

But right now there were footsteps. Fast and hard, and accompanied by the sounds of three men who were sounding more and more out of breath. They came to a halt in what would be considered a clearing to those familiar with the forest.

"Keep looking! They can't have gone far!" screamed the one most out of breath, a combined look of anger and terror on his face.

"I knew this was a bad idea…" sighed the next, moving to leave and look around.

"Wait…". What looked like the leader of the three stepped slowly into the centre of the clearing. He smiled. "Quite clever, I must admit, but I won't be fooled that easily. Don't move" he told his men, who gave each other confused glances. "Don't you see? They're trying to split us up. Even during the middle of the day we can hardly see a few metres ahead… Taking us out one by one would be easy".

There was some rustling in the trees above. The leader jerked his head upwards, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of whoever was up there, but couldn't see a thing. In that moment he was distracted, and suddenly a red blur leapt from behind a tree, knocking him out with a swift blow to the head from a wooden sword. In that same instant a rush of purple dropped down from the trees, landing right on top of another of the men, before taking out the last with a quick chop to the neck.

"Pathetic" laughed Sheena. "You just can't get good quality bandits these days"

"Yeah, well… They're not even worth killing. Let's just leave 'em" replied Lloyd, grinning to himself. "You were aw- … I mean… Nice… Work" stammered Lloyd, before quickly taking an interest in the top of the forest, his face a bright shade of pink.

"What-" Sheena asked, suddenly looking down and realising she was revealing even more than usual. "Whoops!" She laughed awkwardly, now turning an even darker red. Sheena sighed inwardly. She hated the way Lloyd made her act, made her feel, and yet at the same time she couldn't help but love it. She knew she loved Lloyd, but since that night a few months ago when Lloyd agreed to travel the world with her he hadn't shown any signs that he might love her too. Sheena had been sure he understood her that night, but was becoming more and more aware that he was absolutely oblivious, and in a way blamed herself for not being straight forward enough. _Lloyd isn't exactly the smartest guy in the world after all, especially when it comes to figuring out girls_. She just wished she could put her feelings into words...

"Err... Sheena?" Lloyd asked, a puzzled expression on his face. She realised she'd been standing there for a while.

"Oh... Sorry! I was just... Thinking..."She replied dreamily. "Anyway, how many did we find?"

"Just two. I thought there'd be a lot more Exspheres here though" Lloyd admitted.

"Well I guess it just means less work for us, doesn't it?"

"Heh, I'm certainly not complaining, It's just... strange. Where are we going next then? I think maybe we should get Flanoir over and done with. It's not too far anyway."

Flanoir... More memories of failed opportunities. Lloyd noticed her blank expression.

"Sheena are you o.k? Do you want to lie down or something?" he asked

"I think I'm just tired... Would you mind if we went back to Mizuho first?" she asked, sounding completely drained. "We need to get some supplies anyway"

"Yeah sure. I assume we'll need a good night's rest if we're gonna be hunting around Flanoir anyway" he replied. He thought about enquiring further but decided against it. She probably wouldn't tell him if there was something wrong anyway.

They made their way towards Mizuho in an awkward silence, both of them wanting to say something, but never finding the courage. There were hardly any monsters around at the moment, especially noticeable since the forest was usually teeming with them. Once again Lloyd thought it a bit strange, but like Sheena said, it just means less work.

By the time they reached the village the sun was setting, casting a beautiful orange skin across the top of houses and glimmering on the surface of the shallow river running through the village's centre. Sheena had forgotten how amazing Mizuho looked, and even Lloyd caught himself staring placidly at the water. As they entered the village chief saw them out of the corner of his eye, and came over to greet them.

"Always good to see you Sheena" he said, bowing to them "And Lloyd of course" he added, grinning at Sheena.

She scowled at him, knowing exactly what that grin meant, before adding "Sorry but we can't stay long. We're just here to get some essentials before we continue to Flanoir"

"Well both of you will always be welcome here, of course. Take whatever you need. You were our salvation after all" the chief smiled.

"It was nothing... Really!" Lloyd quickly assured the chief, waving his arms in front of him defensively.

"Modest as always I see. Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do. Make yourselves at home by all means" he added motioning towards Sheena's house, and once again casting a grin Sheena's way, before walking off to continue his conversation with one of Mizuho's few citizens.

If it was possible Sheena felt even more depressed now. Even her grandfather could see her obvious affection for Lloyd. Infact Lloyd seemed to be the sole person in the world who hadn't figured it out yet. She was beginning to wonder if maybe he knew, and simply didn't care, though admittedly if that was the case she'd rather not know...

They made their way into the house, Sheena feeling more and more awkward. She hoped that Lloyd hadn't caught onto the chief's grinning, simply because she felt too embarrassed to talk about it.

"So... I'll sleep on the floor then" Lloyd said, noticing Sheena's single bed.

"Ah- Yeah. I could get a futon if you want?" she replied, cursing herself for not getting a bigger bed years ago.

"Nah it's o.k., I quite like the wooden floor" he admitted, slightly embarrassed. "It's... comfy" He added

"O.k then, I'll just get you a blanket"

"Actually... I'm not that tired yet. I think I'll take a quick walk. You get some rest" he said, moving towards the door.

"Lloyd-" she called as he opened the door. He turned to face her

"Yeah?"

She hesitated. "I- ... Erm... Never mind. Good night" she said simply, wanting to kick herself.

"Night" he smiled, shutting the door

Sheena lay back in her bed and punched her pillow viciously. Stupid emotions.

Long afterwards, well into the night, one of the men on watch around Mizuho thought he saw a flash of purple and red in front of him. He found nothing upon investigating however, and simply blamed it on lack of sleep, mumbling something about long shifts and not enough dinner.

* * *

-Boring introductory chapter- 

Don't worry it will get more interesting. ;) Hopefully soon, but you'll just have to wait and see.

As I said please leave helpful criticism. I need YOU! to help make this the best it can be. Anything helpful will be well received


	2. The early bird

"_Presea…"_

"_Presssssseeaaa…"_

She woke with a start, looking around as if she had no idea where she was. She paused.

"My room…" Presea whispered. She relaxed slightly, but continued sitting up in her bed. It was that dream again. In fact it couldn't really be called a dream, and in a way it felt too real to be one anyway. Her sleep was simply invaded by a vision of a green orb, glowing brightly in a sea of darkness. And that voice… It called to her, inviting her, but she had no idea who or what it was. Where it was for that matter…

Beads of perspiration ran slowly down her face. "What does it mean? And why am I sweating? It is not even hot." she asked herself, a subtle note of frustration in her voice. How long had it been now since the dream started? A month? Maybe only a week or two. She found it hard to keep track of time even now that she was growing again. Aging was a better word perhaps, since she had hardly grown at all since her travels with Lloyd and the others. The others...

"Regal." She said, and just as she had expected he was asleep on the floor of her room, or maybe just pretending to be asleep. She had to admit it was… Nice… To have him around, after all her height and her apparent age made certain things a bit difficult, however she felt like he was simply trying to replace her sister. It made sense logically, she was probably the girl most similar to her sister technically, but she didn't love him. Presea didn't think she loved anyone really, and decided to make a point of asking Sheena or Collette how exactly you knew you were in love next time she saw them. There must be some kind of obvious sign, surely?

She thought about telling Regal about this... Vision. He may be able to tell her what it means, or at least suggest some way of stopping it. No... On second thought perhaps she should try to figure out what it was trying to tell her before telling anyone else. So far it was simply a glowing ball and a voice and she would rather not trouble anyone over something so trivial.

Well there would be no point in trying to get back to sleep now. If her past experiences were anything to go by she only had a fourteen percent chance of actually managing to fall asleep within the next hour, and so she simply lay back mechanically, trying to discover the secret of this 'love', and wondering if she had heard that voice before.

* * *

Sheena had woken up earlier than Lloyd, so by the time he was awake she was packed and ready to go, her Rheiard already humming softly as it hovered just above the ground outside.

"Come on Lloyd!" she nagged, nudging him with her foot.

"Eeeeaaauuh… Five more minutes". He pulled the blanket entirely over his head.

"You're so lazy!"

"I am not!" cried Lloyd, suddenly on his feet.

"Knew that'd work" she grinned

"Heeey!"

"Well you're up now, we might as well get going"

"Yeah I suppose" he gave in, yawning and stretching his arms above his head. He smiled to himself, thinking that any of the other girls would take hours longer to get ready… Sheena really was unique.

Sheena decided not to say goodbye to the chief in the end. She didn't think she could stand anymore of those suggestive grins without punching him in the face, and that wouldn't be very polite now would it? After a few minutes Lloyd was up and on his Rheiard, ready to fly, when suddenly he noticed Sheena's body go completely still. She turned her head as if trying desperately to hear something.

"Sheena? What-"

"Shush!" she whispered.

After a while Lloyd could hear it too, incredibly faintly. There was a low rumbling coming from far away. Sheena hopped off her Rheiard, stumbling slightly as she landed and noticing that the ground was also shaking now. "What the hell... Lloyd we'd better check this out" she said, shrinking her Rheiard and walking towards to village entrance.

"Man... It never ends" he sighed

As they walked out of Mizuho the sound started getting steadily louder. It seemed to be coming from the Gaoracchia forest and... It almost sounded like thousands of people running towards them. The ground was shaking enough to send small pebbles dancing across its surface now, and it was getting difficult to stand up straight.

"Should we go and investigate?" Sheena asked

"Well it sounds like it's getting closer... I- Wait... Is that- Holy s-"

"Song?" Sheena joked, before realising what it was that Lloyd was staring at in disbelief. The horizon was filled with every monster imaginable, each and every one cascading towards them like an enormous tidal wave. She slowly drew her cards from her pocket. Not that it would help.

"HOW?" Lloyd cried "There was nothing there yesterday! The forest was empty!"

"Those things spread like wild fire, but still... Not even Gaoracchia should have that many monsters in it!"

"Well I'm not going down without a fight!" The horde was rapidly getting closer "You with me?"

"I don't see how I have a choice" Sheena sighed "Why does this stuff always happen to me?"

Lloyd drew his Kusanagi blades, and readied himself. _We're so screwed..._

Sheena placed her hands together, her eyes closed, mumbling incantations. A glowing brown circle of arcane symbols surrounded her, the swirling magical winds blowing her kimono around playfully. As the swarm drew closer she opened her eyes shouting "I call upon the servant of mother earth!"

"Yeah! Bring it-" Lloyd stopped suddenly, as the enormous sea of creatures quickly parted, running right around them, Mantises, living trees, pumpkins and spectres all rushing as fast as possible away from Gaoracchia forest. A Wolf leapt for Sheena, she quickly raised her cards and shouted "Guardian Seal!" before realising the wolf had jumped clean over her. A rabbit ran head first into Lloyd's leg, squeaking and darting in between them to join the horde of frightened creatures.

They stood there for a few seconds as the monsters cleared away, completely puzzled expressions on their faces.

"On?" Lloyd finished, looking embarrassed. "What the hell?"

"Looked like they were running from something..."

"Maybe we should go and take a look…"

"Are you MAD?" Sheena cried

"Yes" he replied, smiling.

"Ah... Alright then" she sighed. _At least he's brave… Or maybe just stupid._

As they made their way towards the forest an almost overwhelming sense of dread surrounded them, plaguing their thoughts and seeming to drag them down into depression. Gaoracchia always felt foreboding but it was usually just a small niggling in the back of the mind. The feeling that you shouldn't be here. This was something completely new, completely encompassing that threatened to send the burliest of men running home crying. Thankfully Sheena is a woman, and Lloyd is oblivious to everything…

It seemed darker than usual too, especially since it was still early in the morning, and even when Sheena called on Luna to help light the way it seemed as if the light around them was somehow being absorbed by the forest, drawn into and devoured by the darkness. They proceeded slowly and carefully, making as little sound as possible. They would rather not be snuck up on by whatever it was that scared all those monsters away, and this new feeling didn't help things.

After they had gone quite some way into the forest Sheena began to notice a strange glow. It seemed to be coming from straight ahead of them, the direction that she now realised they were being drawn to, as it was getting steadily brighter as they moved on, and yet it didn't appear to be casting any shadows behind the trees. It illuminated them completely as if coming from within the trees themselves. Or as if it was surrounding them.

Lloyd held his arm up in front of his eyes, the glow now quite bright, especially compared to the usual gloom of the forest. "Man what the hell is going on today? It's just one thing after another…"

"Shush! What… What is that?" Sheena whispered, pointing to a large gap in the trees. In the centre was what looked like a person, standing in front of the source of the green glow, blocking their view.

"Let's try and get close. Don't make a sound" Lloyd said quietly. They both crept forward using the trees as cover, and splitting up to surprise whoever it was if they needed to.

Suddenly the now dazzling glow was extinguished completely, sucked into the hands of the small figure. Lloyd stumbled as his hands flashed towards his sword.

_Crack_

There was complete silence as Lloyd lifted his foot from the twig. _Damnit!_ The figure stiffened as it realised there was someone there. All three of them were perfectly still for what seemed like a life-time, both sides thinking they were about to be attacked by some bandits. Or worse…

The person slowly bent down, appearing to be feeling along the ground for something. Small fragile hands lingered there for a moment, before the body suddenly spun round, Lloyd and Sheena both drawing their weapons as an axe was heaved up from the ground, and pink hair twirled about a young girl's face.

"… Presea?"

"Lloyd?"


	3. The worm

Presea relaxed, holding her axe at her side "Hello Lloyd." She looked around momentarily "What are you doing here all alone?"

"I'm here too," Sheena said stepping into the clearing

"Oh... Well why are you both here?"

"We were trying to find out what scared away all the monsters," Lloyd replied. "Wait... They weren't running from you were they?" he added, the expression on his face priceless.

"That... would not be logical. Together they could defeat me easily"

"Well... Yeah... But what was that green light?" Sheena asked

"I have no idea..." Presea said reaching into her pocket. She produced a small almost see-through green orb, with several tiny veins running through it, each one a different shade of green. "As soon as I touched it the glow stopped"

"That- It looks like an Exsphere!" Lloyd cried "I've never seen a green one though... And what are those little vein-y things?"

"Now that you mention it... It kinda does. That glow felt similar to the warm glow of an exsphere too," Sheena added. "That still doesn't explain why all those monsters were running for their lives though. I'm pretty sure they weren't running from a scary exsphere."

"Hmm... Good point... Then again, that weird feeling is gone now. I don't feel like running for my own life anymore."

"Aaaagh! This is all so confusing," Sheena sighed

"Well we should probably be on our way. It doesn't look like there's anything to investigate here anymore. Flanoir isn't gonna come to us"

"Flanoir?" Presea blurted out, before quickly adding "Umm... Why Flanoir?"

"Well... It's probably the most out-of-the-way place," Lloyd replied "We thought it'd be best to get it done early so we don't have to go back. Plus there shouldn't be much to find around there anyway since it's mostly wilderness. Not many people are going to be running around planting Exspheres in the snow"

"Would- Umm... Would you mind if I went with?" Presea asked shyly

"How come?" Sheena said, thinking afterwards that her tone may have been a bit harsh. Well if she couldn't tell Lloyd how she felt when they were alone what chance did she have with Presea around?

Presea hesitated. _No. I can't tell them... _Especially now that she'd found this... Exsphere. If it really was an Exsphere. It certainly looked like one. "I... Haven't left home in a while. I would quite like a holiday, and Flanoir is... Nice"

"Well... Sure, I suppose we could use as much help as we can get. No slacking off though!" Lloyd joked.

"I will make sure I work hard"

"No I- Ugh... You're impossible to joke with Presea," he sighed.

"Do you have a Rheiard?" asked Sheena, deciding to simply be blunt, and hoping she ended up changing her mind.

"There is one back at my house. We should go and get it. And I must tell Regal…"

"Oh so he's staying with you huh?" Sheena replied, winking.

Presea simply said "Yes", and wondered what Sheena had stuck in her eye. "Anyway, we should get going. It is not far"

They set off in the direction of Ozette, Sheena trying to stay as close to Lloyd as possible and Presea lagging behind slightly. After several minutes of walking and much deliberation on Presea's part she tapped Sheena on the shoulder, blushing intensely. "Umm… Can I ask you something? I-In private," She added looking at Lloyd, and dragging Sheena back a few paces.

"Uuh… Yeah sure. What is it?"

"I…" She coughed nervously. It wasn't like Presea to show any emotion, especially embarrassment, or even ask questions. She seemed to know everything already. "How do you know when you are in love?" she suddenly blurted out, adding "I mean… There must be some- symptoms?"

_Ah. That explains it_. "Presea… You make it sound like a disease," sighed Sheena

"Well surely there is some way of knowing? A sign of some sort?"

Sheena couldn't help glancing at Lloyd. "Well- I- I can't really say. It's hard to explain. No one else can tell you you're in love, that's for sure. You just sort of… Know. If that makes sense?"

"It does not. How do I know if I know if all I know is that I am supposed to know? If that makes sense?"

Sheena felt like screaming. Not only did she love Lloyd, and not only could she not find the courage to tell him, she was now being asked to explain WHY or HOW she loved him, by someone who couldn't understand even if she _did_ know how to explain it. "Well- I suppose you just get this feeling in your chest. Your heart beats faster you know? You want to be with someone all the time. You want to talk to them, and walk with them and…" she coughed "Well- I'll tell you the next bit when you're a bit older... Understand now?"

"… Increased pulse rate? That is a symptom."

"O.k Yeah… Let's just go with that," she sighed, giving in.

"Umm… Thank you Sheena"

"Whyyy… Do you think you might love someone?" Sheena said, grinning.

"I do not think so. I have not experienced those symptoms whilst with anyone as far as I can remember. I just wanted to make sure."

"Yeah… Well… Now you know" … _She's completely hopeless…_

"You guys aren't talking about me are you?" Lloyd shouted from ahead of them.

_In a way…_ "No of course not," Sheena laughed

"Well we're almost here now. Ho- What the? … Presea! I thought Ozette was being re-built!" Lloyd cried as they arrived near the outskirts of the still-ruined village.

"Well… They started to, but when the worlds were rejoined most people chose to move to much larger cities. It is far easier to attain food and other things, not to mention safer. The only thing stopping most people from leaving before was Gaoracchia forest, and that stopped being a problem when the worlds joined."

"So you've been living on your own all this time?"

"I was with Regal… Besides, I lived in isolation for most of my life. No-one would talk to me at all for s-… several years"

"Man… You really need to socialise more," he laughed, but shut up as soon as he realised she didn't get it.

They made their way through the small village, most of the houses still charred relics, towards Presea's small house. She hesitated briefly before opening the door carefully, looking around for Regal once she was inside. "Regal?" No reply. _Good... He is not here_. She felt cruel leaving him behind, but she had to do this on her own. It would be nice to finally have a break from Regal anyway. She hurried over to the desk to grab her wing pack and a few more essentials, when suddenly a sound from outside made her heart sink.

"Regal! Long time no see!" Lloyd shouted cheerily

"Good to see you Lloyd," Regal replied. "What brings you around here?"

"They came with me to get my Rheiard," said Presea, emerging from the house. "I'm going to go with them to Flanoir."

"I see. Then perhaps I should come as well... I must admit I wouldn't mind a good test of my strength around the ice temple. Wouldn't want to get out of practice," he grinned.

Presea knew there would be no convincing him to stay now. It wasn't that she didn't like Regal, she just wanted a bit of space... "Yes. If that is o.k with you Lloyd?"

"Uuh... Yeah sure. I guess we could use some help around there... You still have a Rheiard too right?"

"Yes," said Regal simply, unshrinking his Rheiard. "When do we leave?"

"Well right now if you're ready," Sheena answered, getting out her own Rheiard. "We've already had enough delays today"

Within a few minutes, after Regal had quickly gathered some gels and other supplies, they were all on their Rheiards darting over the trees towards Flanoir, freezing winds and harsh blizzards, Presea clutching the green exsphere tightly in her pocket.

* * *

**A/N:** Aaaah Presea, when will you learn? Anyway... Really hated the end of that chapter, but I suppose they couldn't just suddenly appear in Flanoir...

Oh and I don't really like Regal very much. I think I hide it pretty well. You probably didn't notice. More importantly... Things should start to get a bit more interesting next chapter 3


	4. Can of worms

A/N:Hello and welcome to chapter four. If anyone is actually reading this fanfic, sorry about not updating for so long. Holidays are evil, especially with no internet access. Anyway it's here now so hope you enjoy :3

* * *

The group arrived at Flanoir around midday, snow covering the entire town and the air still freezing despite the sun beaming down from above. Sheena and Lloyd decided to do a quick sweep of the town to make sure they didn't miss any exspheres strewn about, but as they expected their search returned nothing.

"O.k. I was thinking we would go north to the mountains above Flanoir and then just work our way around the area," Lloyd explained once they were back together. "Check inside all the caves and stuff. Like I said before, there's not much point in looking anywhere else, since people probably don't go spreading exspheres around snowy plains"

"Or… I could go with Regal to the ice temple, and we could work our way round in two teams. It would be much faster" suggested Presea.

"Uuh… Yeah I guess it would. O.k, you guys go south and we'll go north."

"We'll leave something in the first cave we go in to let you know where we started" Sheena added.

"See you tonight then," Lloyd called, waving from his Rheiard. "Oh but don't leave it too late. You wouldn't wanna crash on the way back because it's too dark."

The two teams departed in opposite directions. Presea and Regal travelled in complete silence with only the sound of the wind to break the complete void of sound around them. Neither of them could ever think of anything to talk about, and likewise Sheena couldn't find anything interesting to comment on but the weather, which, to be honest, wasn't very interesting considering the fact that it had been exactly the same for as long as they could remember.

Presea and Regal had decided to get to the ice temple quickly to give them as much time to look around as possible. The snowy plains around the temple were eerily quiet and just as deserted. Even the entrance was difficult to find, since much of it had been covered by snow in the recent blizzards. As they walked inside the icicles around their feet could actually be seen getting gradually bigger, reaching up towards the ceiling like great frozen vines to join hands with those hanging from the ceiling. Everything froze much faster in the ice temple and Regal had made sure to relieve himself before going inside to avoid any rather painful mishaps. Lloyd had found out the hard way last time.

"I think maybe we should split up," Presea suggested. "We can cover more ground that way."

Regal was silent for a moment, as if considering something. "Yes. There don't seem to be any enemies around at the moment strangely enough, so it's unlikely that we'll be attacked if alone."

"O.k. I'll… Head towards the shrine room… You take those caves over there," she said, pointing towards a passage that split off away from the main temple.

"Right. If anything happens… Shout for me."

"And the same for you," she said, before turning around and walking away into the frozen caves.

Alone… Finally… At least he had not decided to follow her. She wanted to figure this out on her own. Right now it didn't seem like that was going to happen though. Nothing made sense. Why had she been having these dreams? She was almost certain the exsphere she had found was the green orb from her dreams, but there was still the voice. Plus when she touched the exsphere not only had the green glow stopped, but she had seen the ice shrine. At least it certainly looked like the ice shrine…

Presea suddenly snapped out of her own head. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be looking for exspheres, and glanced around quickly to check that she had not missed anything obvious_. It is unlikely that we missed any last time anyway…_ she thought to herself. Besides, she couldn't stand not knowing what this was all about. And that voice…

She quickened her pace, occasionally glancing round for anything of interest, but didn't find anything. It had been getting even colder as she moved into the temple and she was now shivering, her breath visible in small clouds before her. Presea could see the light from the shrine, not far off now. Her pace quickened even further. Suddenly she noticed a slight tugging on her clothes, as if pulling her towards the room. She reached into her pocket, withdrawing the exsphere and as she had suspected it was being carefully pulled from her grasp. She held on tightly, the pull getting stronger as she neared the room.

Once inside the pull on the orb was too strong for her to control, and it was torn from her fingers, rushing towards the centre of the room, and then suddenly stopping. Presea was frozen on the spot. She waited for what seemed like an age, staring at this mesmerizing green orb floating calmly in the centre of the room. All of a sudden green light erupted from it, almost blinding Presea, filling the room and spreading outwards to squeeze itself into every hole and crevice within the temple.

She knew what to do here and slowly inched her way towards it, one hand in front of her eyes to block out some of the overpowering green glow. She carefully raised her hand to take the green orb once again, but as soon as she touched it the glow stopped. She shrank back away from it, scared that she had done something wrong, when all of a sudden the green ball rushed towards her. It hit her hard in the centre of the forehead, pushing her backwards and pinning her against the wall. Immense pain exploded throughout her entire body as the thing melted into her head like butter in a hot pan.

"Re- gal…" Her voice came out hoarse and weak.

She screamed as loud as she could, before she blacked out.

* * *

Regal had been far more thorough in his searching, checking under rocks, and in several small holes around the caves. He had been having second thoughts about letting Presea go off alone, but then she was an incredibly strong girl, and he was sure she could take care of herself. He had his own things to worry about anyway…

On several occasions… Well… He was sure it was madness, but he thought he had seen the shadows move. There it was again! It looked like the tall thin shadow of an icicle, but then out of the corner of his eye he had seen the top of it bend. He knew he had seen it…

_Drip… drip… drip…_

Well there was nothing he could do about it now. He should just press on

A high ringing assaulted his ears, stopping just as abruptly as it had started. "What the-" The entire cave was suddenly bathed in a green light, tendrils creeping into the shadows above and below him. "What on earth?" he muttered, looking all around him for a source of this strange glow. He was on his guard, ready for something to happen, but instead he heard a scream. "Presea!" he shouted, starting towards the tunnel he had entered from.

Suddenly an enormous, sharp icicle thrust out towards him, missing him by millimetres as he bent backwards. He quickly jumped out of the way, and shouted "I knew it!". The icicle melted, and the water trickled back to form reptilian legs and a tail, thick powerful arms and a round shimmering head.

"Aah, no wonder I heard dripping. I thought it was a bit odd that it wasn't frozen. Let's make this quick shall we?" Regal said through gritted teeth. "Assss you wissssh" came a voice that seemed as if submerged and ran a chill down Regal's spine.

He lunged towards the beast, spinning in the air to kick it twice in the head. His feet hit nothing but air however, as the thing merely morphed around his legs. "Hmm…" He jumped back again. The monster's leg stretched out to kick him, Regal moving out the way easily, before it froze into a long sharp blade of ice and rushed towards him. Regal ducked underneath it just in time and brought his leg down on it as he stood up, shattering it into small pieces.

"Niccccce try," the thing laughed, the ice melting again and sliding back over to him. Regal growled and rushed towards it unleashing a barrage of kicks, all of them hitting nothing. He spun round attempting to kick it once more, but as he missed the beast wrapped it's arm around his leg, freezing it in place and smashing Regal against a wall, fragments of ice slashing at his skin as he fell.

He climbed slowly to his feet, a deep cut in his arm. "Why not tryyy using your handsssss?" the beast grinned. Regal stood up straight, closing his eyes and not moving. "Giving up ssso easssy?" the creature gurgled, lashing it's arm towards him. Regal opened his eyes, bringing his hands up to face the thing as a huge wave of white hot energy erupted from them, completely evaporating the creature.

"Well… You did ask for it," Regal shrugged, before the realisation suddenly dawned on him. "Presea!" he cried, and once again ran off through the tunnel towards the shrine room.

* * *

Lloyd and Sheena had been surprised to find an exsphere early on in the day. They had left one of Lloyd's swords stuck into the ground outside of the first cave they came to to let Presea and Regal know where they had started, and other than the first exsphere finding the day had been incredibly uneventful.

"So where do you think we'll be going next?" Sheena said, desperate to break the silence.

"Well… I was thinking maybe Altamira? That's pretty close to here," he replied after trying to remember the world map. He was never very good at Geography… Or any subject…

"Aaaah, just wanna see me in my swimsuit eh?" she laughed.

"Well… I suppose it was pretty cool," he smiled.

_Wow! That was almost a compliment on my body… Where the hell is the real Lloyd?_ Sheena laughed.

"What?"

"Huh? Oh… Err… Nothing," she said, blushing slightly

"You haven't been drinking again have you?" Lloyd laughed

"What do you mean again?"

"Err… You-… Umm… It's getting kinda dark. Maybe we should head back," he said, genuinely noticing that it was around dusk, but congratulating himself on his quick wit at changing the subject.

"Yeah I suppose… Man I'm freezing," she replied, her teeth chattering.

They left the cave they were searching, Sheena leaving a bit of purple cloth in the cave this time to remind them where they had stopped their search, and hopped onto their Rheiards.

"Don't go too fast," Lloyd suggested as he squinted through the snow. "Wouldn't want you crashing on me."

"I am not gonna-" she started, when suddenly a bolt of purple lightning flashed past her, narrowly missing her Rheiard. Another one struck closer as she veered away towards Lloyd to avoid it. More and more appeared out of nowhere, striking again and again as Sheena steered wildly trying to avoid them, almost crashing into Lloyd. The sixth one clipped the left wing of her Rheiard however, piercing straight through it and sending her veering towards the ground. "Grrh- Damnit!" Sheena cried as she struggled to keep altitude, but the controls were completely stiff and she was forced to jump off just before her Rheiard crashed heavily into the ground, rolling in the snow before kneeling beside her Rheiard clutching her arm.

"Sheena!" Lloyd shouted, landing his Rheiard and running over to help. "Are you o.k?" he put his hand on her shoulder as he arrived.

"Yeah… Nngh… I'm fi-". She stopped. Lloyd's hand had suddenly tightened on her shoulder. "L- Lloyd?" Her instant thought was that Lloyd had a knife to his neck. She started to turn her head.

"_Don't_! Move…" came a voice from behind her. Lloyd's hand clutched at her even tighter at the sound of it.

"No…" She whispered.

Lloyd swallowed, his throat scraping the sword as he did. "D- Dad?"

* * *

A/N: GASP! Who'd've thunk it? Yes I don't think I'm very good at being dramatic, but leave your comments and hopefully I can improve :p 


	5. Façade?

A/N: And the next one... Sort of making up for not updating in two weeks... But not really...

* * *

Lloyd stood perfectly still in the snow, the biting cold lashing at his face and the sword scraping at his neck.

"Hello. Son." Kratos laughed

"Wh- Let him go! What are you doing?" Sheena cried, careful not to move too much.

"Just hold on for a minute. I have a job to take care of," he grinned. "Now where is Presea? Is she with you?"

"What do you want with her?" Lloyd shouted

"Answer the question!" Kratos screamed, pressing the blade closer into his throat.

"She- She's at the ice temple," he gasped "What do you want with her?"

"Good boy," Kratos replied, ignoring his question. "Now-"

Kratos' grip suddenly loosened and Lloyd instantly pushed him back, jumping forward away from him and rubbing his neck. Kratos knelt in the snow, not moving an inch.

"... Go... Both of you," he murmured.

"Lloyd!" Sheena cried. "Come on!"

"Dad? What-" Lloyd muttered, slowly stepping closer to Kratos.

"Go... You-... No..." Kratos mumbled again. Suddenly his sword was in his hand again and he lunged towards Lloyd, slashing at his head. Lloyd managed to pull his sword up to his face just in time, but there was no strength behind his arms and his sword dropped to the ground, his hand shaking. Kratos brought his sword up above him for a downwards slash, stopped by Lloyd's other sword just millimetres from his head.

Lloyd looked at his father's eyes as he pressed up on the sword, Kratos doing the opposite, a sinister grin on his face. They were bright, almost glowing inside his head. "Nnnrah! Who are you?" he screamed as he threw Kratos off him.

"Don't you recognise your Daddy, _Son_?" he laughed hysterically. "You haven't forgotten me already have you?" He rushed towards Lloyd again, swinging his sword wildly.

"Why? What-" Lloyd was cut off as his sword was knocked from his hands. Kratos let out a blood chilling laugh. Lloyd saw the blade heading straight for his chest.

"Pyre Seal!" screamed Sheena, thrusting her cards at Kratos and knocking him off his feet to roll in the snow metres away. "Come on!"

"I-"

"Now!"

Sheena grabbed Lloyd's swords, her Rheiard already in it's wing pack, and tugged Lloyd by the arm back to his Rheiard. She shoved him onto it before climbing on herself and rocketing off towards Flanoir as fast as possible, sending a huge wave of snow across Kratos as he stood up.

"He he... Run as fast as you like," he said, sheathing his sword. "You can't escape us." He spread his ethereal wings, rising up into the sky and flew out of the blizzard, away from Flanoir.

* * *

Regal shot into the shrine room if the ice temple, skidding to a halt as he saw Presea lying on the ground to his side. He ran over and bent down to look at her. She seemed unharmed.

"Presea? Are- Are you o.k?" he said softly. "Presea?" He tried nudging her gently but to no avail. He didn't want to be too rough if she was hurt.

He stood up. There were no obvious wounds on her body, her clothes weren't ripped or torn at all... Even magic would have left some signs. Burning, dampness, rips... Something... And he hadn't taken very long to get here. Whatever it was should still be around. He couldn't see any signs of life around the cave though, or even any signs that there had been a fight in the area...

Well he couldn't just leave her here. She'd freeze for a start, and if she was injured she would need medical attention. He lifted her up in his powerful arms and departed for the entrance. He kept his eyes and ears open the entire time for anything which could have attacked Presea, but didn't see anything. There didn't seem to be any more of the creature that attacked him earlier either to his relief. He couldn't fight another one and protect Presea at the same time...

Regal soon arrived at the exit to the temple. He got out his Rheiard and placed Presea between himself and the controls, her arms wrapped around him, so that she wouldn't fall off, before heading back to Flanoir slowly.

* * *

By the time Sheena and Lloyd reached Flanoir it was dusk and the freezing blizzards were beginning to die down. They entered the inn and the woman at the desk told them Regal and Presea were already back. Sheena thanked the woman and dragged Lloyd, who was still shaken and had a vacant look in his eyes, to their room.

"We have a situation," Sheena and Regal chimed as they entered the room.

"We-"

"K-"

"Pr-"

"L-"

"Oh-"

"Jus-"

"Uuugh! We'll never get anywhere like this... You go first," Sheena sighed

"O.k." Regal replied, standing aside so that they could see Presea, still unconscious on the bed. He told them how they had split up, how he had heard Presea scream and how he had been attacked. How he couldn't see anyone around and how Presea didn't seem to be hurt at all. She just hadn't woken up in several hours...

"Did you call the doctor?" she asked.

"He was away earlier, but he just arrived not long ago. He couldn't see anything wrong with her either. Just told me to let her rest... How about you?"

"Well..." she hesitated, looking at Lloyd "Umm... Lloyd was attacked." Sheena said finally

"By who? Are you o.k? Did you fight them off?"

"It was... Kratos..."

"It wasn't him," Lloyd said suddenly. "I know it... It couldn't have been him. Why would he put a sword to my throat?"

"I don't know Lloyd but... It certainly looked like him," Sheena replied.

"I must admit... I find it hard to believe that Kratos would return to attack Lloyd. A shape-shifter perhaps?" Regal suggested.

"I don't know of any that can mimic a voice. It sounded just like him... Only... Colder."

"Maybe this isn't the best time to talk about this," Regal said noticing Lloyd's forlorn expression.

"Right. Well considering the situation maybe Flanoir isn't the safest place to be right now," Sheena added. "Ah damnit... Thanks to- Whoever that was, my Rheiard is trashed. How the heck are we gonna get it fixed?"

"There's only 3 people I know of who even understand how the Rheiards work properly," Lloyd said. "I doubt we're gonna find Yuan, since he always seems to disappear. Raine's probably gonna be hard to find since she's moving around with Genis all the time so... That leaves-"

"Oh no..." Sheena groaned.

"-Zelos..."

"Please... No... Anything but that! We'll track down Yuan! I'm sure we can find him. My life depends on it!"

"Oh come on, he's not that bad... Besides, anyone else will take too long."

"Ugh. I suppose you're right. I'll never understand how someone so stupid can be so... Smart... But if that's the case I'm gonna have to fly with... someone else," She added, glancing at Lloyd and hoping she wasn't blushing. "Just until it's fixed..."

"Well-" Lloyd began

"You can ride with me," Presea called suddenly. "There will be more room on my Rheiard."

It took all of Sheena's strength to stop herself from strangling Presea. "Err... Thanks... Wait. When did you wake up?"

"A few minutes ago. You were talking so I did not want to disturb you," she explained.

"Are you injured?" Regal asked.

"Uuh... My head hurts. I do not have any wounds though if that is what you mean," she replied, rubbing her head.

"When we were in the ice temple... I heard you scream. What happened?"

Presea hesitated. "I do not remember... The last thing I recall is walking into the shrine room and then... I woke up here."

"What the hell is going on recently?" Sheena sighed. "Well if we're gonna have to bear Zelos tomorrow I'm gonna need a good night's sleep... I'll see you in the morning." She walked over to the door and opened it, before coming back and grabbing Lloyd, who was still staring blankly at the floor. "Goodnight."

"I think I'll get some sleep too," said Regal. "Night."

"But I just woke up," sighed Presea, but she lay back onto her pillow anyway and was asleep within minutes.

* * *

A/N: coughBlatant filler chaptercough

Yeah... Originally this chapter was gonna be paired with the next one but it turned out a bit longer than I expected and the next one will probably take a bit longer so I thought I might as well just give you this one now. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far! All your comments are welcome.


	6. Curses

A/N: Phew... Almost 4000 words... That's pretty insane for me... Anyway I'll let you get on with the show!

* * *

The group was up early the next day, thinking it was best to get away from Flanoir as soon as possible and most of them unable to sleep very much anyway. Lloyd tried hard to act as if he was unaffected by yesterday's events but even Presea could tell it was still bothering him. He had lost his usual enthusiasm for even the simplest things and seemed to be staring at random things a lot.

They mounted their Rheiards and took off in the direction of Meltokio, travelling slower than usual due to the extra weight on Presea's Rheiard. Sheena felt awkward holding onto Presea the whole time and she was sure that Lloyd had caught her staring at him at least a dozen times before they reached their destination. She would have to remind the Sybak scholars to change their definition of red to "Sheena Fujibayashi's face"...

They arrived in Meltokio before noon, landing just outside the gates before venturing inside the city walls. If it had been busy before the two worlds had joined then it was bordering on chaotic now. Huge waves of people washed through the streets carrying handfuls of bags, the girls' full of the latest fashions and the most gorgeous jewels and accessories, and the boys' full of the latest weapons, armours and potions that claimed to make you 10 times stronger. And occasionally the other way around.

It took them at least twenty minutes to navigate through the endless sea of giggling young girls and cocky self-proclaimed warriors to the richer sector of Meltokio. With less shops around the streets weren't quite as packed but getting from A to B was still hard work.

"Ugh… I feel like all my bones are crushed," Sheena groaned when they finally arrived at Zelos' front door. Lloyd walked up to it and knocked a few times… Nothing. He tried again. After a while the door was opened to reveal an unfamiliar face.

"Err… Zelos home?" Lloyd asked, looking slightly confused.

"I'm afraid he no longer lives here. He moved out a few weeks ago in fact. I believe he lives in a rather new house round that corner over there," he answered, pointing to an alley behind several more crowds of people.

"Uuuugh… Err… Thanks," he replied. "Come on then."

"Why would Zelos move house?" Presea asked as they once again attempted to cut through the endless reams of people.

"His old one probably wasn't big and obnoxious enough," Sheena laughed. "He must need at _least_ a hundred rooms he doesn't use."

"Err…" Lloyd stopped suddenly as they rounded the corner.

"What the-"

"There must be some kind of mistake…"

"What?" Presea asked, her face a mask of spectacular befuddlement.

"It's… Well… It's just so… Small," Sheena finally managed to say. "Well not particularly small I suppose but… Compared to his old one it's like a cottage!"

The house was the only one on the small back street of the sector. It even looked like a cottage, plain wooden walls and decorations that simply didn't look like they belonged in this usually over-extravagant part of the city. There wasn't a bit of gold in sight.

As they approached the house Lloyd moved forward to lean on the door with one hand. It was thrown open just before he touched it, causing him to reach straight past and fall flat on his face.

"Nah I already tried the floor. Tastes horrible," Zelos chuckled. "Now the beds! Man you gotta try those!... What?" He suddenly looked behind him after noticing Regal and Sheena's faces. "Well yeah o.k it's cool but it's not THAT good. Just a house."

"Whrff moommf hffm?" murmured Lloyd from the floor.

"Huh?"

"I said why did you move house?"

"Sounded to me like you said 'Whrff moommf hffm'"

"Exactly!"

"Err… Ooookaaaay then… Well ya know. I thought hey I'm not even using half these rooms. Thought I'd try out something a little more cosy. Isn't it great? Perfect place for you to show off your voluptuous body Sheena ♥ ," he winked.

"Haven't changed a bit then I see," Sheena sighed. She slowly moved behind Lloyd. Just in case…

"PreSEA! Aaaw well aren't you just as cute as a button!" he squealed, squeezing her hard enough to break any normal person's bones.

"Are buttons cute?" she managed to gasp.

"Err… Well no I guess they aren't…"

There was a long and awkward silence…

"Come in! I'll show you around the place!" Zelos yelled cheerily.

"Err… Well actually we kinda came here for a reason…" Lloyd replied.

"You mean other than seeing my beautiful face?" he exclaimed, looking genuinely shocked.

"Ugh… My Rheiard got trashed by… Well… We'll explain that in a bit. One of the wings has been completely broken off," she said, handing him her wing pack.

"Weeeeell I must admit I'm no blacksmith but… I do know one who owes me a favour. I'll just get him to weld it back on. Shouldn't be too hard." A servant seemed to appear from nowhere and took the wing pack from Sheena. "Ask him to make it quick will ya?" Zelos added.

"Plus… I'd pay to _not_ see your face." Sheena shot back.

"You're so mean to me," he replied, giving her the hugest, saddest puppy-dog eyes he could muster.

"How many times do I have to tell you that doesn't work on me?" she sighed. "Besides I'm sure one of your brainless 'hunnies' would much rather have you groping them."

"I do not grope! I either feel or fondle... There's a big difference!"

"Yeah... Right... Where are they anyway? I'd expect to have been trampled by a huge crowd of them by now," She added, looking around.

"I'm afraid if you came here looking for girls to play with you're fresh out of luck Sheena," Zelos replied with a complimentary wink. "There's only one girl for me at the moment."

All but Zelos burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter. When Lloyd could finally breathe again he managed to say "Good one Zelos," clapping his hand onto his shoulder, mainly to help him stand up straight. "But seriously, where are they?"

"I _was_ being serious! You lot just have absolutely no faith in me do you?" he asked, giving them another face that could shatter the hearts of even the most battle-hardened warriors. If they hadn't seen it every two seconds in the past year that is. "Hunny! ♥" Zelos called. "We have visitors!"

A little head popped out from a door down a hallway behind Zelos. None of them could believe their eyes.

"LLOYD!" squealed Collette, running straight towards him at breakneck speed. She saw Sheena standing next to Lloyd, began to slow down, and tripped on a rug that was in the middle of the floor. She was up again instantly with an insanely huge smile on her face. "Whoops... I guess I'm still a bit of a klutz," she giggled. She glanced at Lloyd but turned away blushing. Sheena took a step closer to him.

"You know it's quite rude to keep your mouths hanging open like that," Zelos said, grabbing Collette by the waist and giving her a big hug.

"Hi everyone! It's so good to see you all!" Collette said waving happily at them all.

"But! But- But... You do realise this is Zelos right? I mean... Did you hit your head when you fell or something?" Sheena asked, completely astonished.

"Aaaaw you guys are so mean to him... He's sweet really," she replied hugging him again.

"See? She realises it! You're all just crazy!" Zelos cried.

"Right... We're the crazy ones... No doubt you've already corrupted her mind. Probably de-flowered her too," Sheena said, shuddering at the thought.

"Huh? De-flowered?"

"Nah she wanted to wait until after we get married" Zelos replied and winked again.

"What? ... OH! Oh... Umm... Yes..." Collette's face now outmatched even Sheena's for absolute scarlet.

"WHAT!" Sheena and Lloyd both cried.

"You're getting married?... O.k... where the hell is the real Zelos? I think we may have another shape-shifter or whatever here..." Sheena said, taking out her cards.

"See what I mean? They just hate me! Besides you lot are acting as if it's strange for me to like Collette! Don't you think she's cute?" he asked rubbing his head on hers. "Not as cute as little Presea here of course, but still pretty cute ♥. Wouldn't want Presea to get jealous of you now would I? How old are you now by the way Presea? Can't be long 'till you're legal." He winked again, before adding "I was kidding!" to Collette, who looked like she'd been slapped.

"I'm t-... Thirteen..." she mumbled.

"What? You didn't tell me you'd had a birthday." Regal replied, looking slightly insulted. When was it?"

"Umm... Last week... I didn't tell you because I... I didn't want any fuss."

"I wouldn't have made a big deal of it if you hadn't wanted me to..."

"Aaaw how sweet! My little Presea's officially a teenager! This calls for a celebration!" screamed Zelos, clapping his hands together.

"But Zelos I-" Presea started but was cut off as the cogs in Zelos' head slowly began to spring to life.

"I won't take no for an answer! This'll be a great opportunity for our first party in the new house."

"Zelos. No."

"I'm not taking it!"

"Come on Zelos we don't really have time to stay for a party," Lloyd offered.

"Nonsense! We'll have it today. Trust me, when Zelos Wilder has a party word spreads fast! I'll go make all the preparations." And with that he was off, disappearing into the depths of the house and laughing hysterically.

"... What the hell just happened here?" Sheena asked.

"It seems Zelos and Collette are getting married, and Zelos has now decided to hold a birthday party for me," answered Presea immediately.

"You know I wasn't literally asking... We didn't even get a chance to tell him about Kratos..."

"Kratos? When did Kratos get back?" Collette cried, looking overjoyed.

"He didn't... It wasn't him, I know it!" yelled Lloyd. "Those eyes weren't his..."

"Umm... What's going on?" asked Collette, worry slowly creeping onto her usually cheery face.

"Maybe we should get Zelos back here first..."

"We won't see him for hours... He always just disappears when he's planning something. I'd love to know where he goes..."

"O.k then... Well, where to start..."

Sheena started at their unexpected detour into Gaoracchia forest, leaving nothing out until they had reached Meltokio, before Regal took over to tell his part. She had of course been careful to make sure she accentuated the fact that her and Lloyd were together the whole time.

"It can't be him…" said Collette when the tale was done. "I know he attacked us in the past but… It's different now! There's no way it could be him!"

"She's right in a way… Cruxis no longer exists, or the Desians. He has no one to take orders from," Regal agreed. "However, at the same time, who else could want Lloyd dead? Or any of us for that matter? Anyone able to summon a shape-shifting demon would have to be powerful, or at least have a small army of workers at their disposal to help…"

"Yuan perhaps? As far as we know he still has his Renegades," suggested Sheena.

"Hmm… I think it's unlikely, but at this time we can't rule out any possibilities."

"Well… You could all use a bit of relaxation right?" Collette smiled, instantly cheery again. "Maybe this party isn't such a bad idea huh? Anyway… I think I'm gonna go get ready. I'll see you all later!" She hurried away down the corridor and, from the sound if it, up a flight of stairs. And onto the floor again…

"Good to see some things are still normal around here," laughed Sheena.

"Err… Does anyone actually have anything to wear?" Lloyd asked.

"Now that you mention it… I don't have anything other than what I'm wearing…"

"I'm gonna go take a look around the shops… See you guys later." said Lloyd as he slipped through the door into Meltokio's streets.

"Sounds like a good idea… You guys coming?"

"I have a house in Meltokio. I may pick something up from there," replied Regal.

"O.k. Well I'll see you two later then."

* * *

Sheena's head rested on her arms, crossed on the banister of the balcony. _Why did I get this stupid dress… It's so embarrassing…Not like Lloyd's gonna be impressed anyway._

She wore a long lavender dress of fine silk, shimmering softly in the moonlight. The shoulders were bare, and the sleeves ran down the length of her arms to hang at her wrists. It was tightly fitted, showing off her curvy figure and draping elegantly around her legs, thankfully covering her dark coloured boots. She hadn't had enough money to buy any shoes, and probably wouldn't have bought any if she did.

_So much for a party…_ She thought. _It's just a bunch of Zelos' friends getting drunk. And they're probably just as perverted as he is…_ She let out a long sigh. _I can't go down there…_

"Oh…"

"Huh? Oh, Lloyd. Err… Hi," Sheena spluttered nervously.

"Sorry I didn't realise you…"

"No it's fine… You can stay here… I- if you want…"

"Thanks," he smiled. "I'm not really a big fan of these 'parties' either." He came and leant on the edge of the balcony next to her.

"Couldn't find anything to wear?" Sheena asked, noticing Lloyd's usual red outfit.

"Err… Yeah. Everything's the same. It's all just boring suits everywhere."

"Aaww I bet you'd look really cute in one of those suits," laughed Sheena, instantly wishing she hadn't and turning her head so Lloyd couldn't see her face rapidly turning pink.

"Heh. Thanks. You err… You look great in that," he replied smiling.

"I- Uh-" She coughed. "I err… Thanks… Was what I meant to say…"

They stood there in silence for a while, looking at the sky.

"I hate how you can't see the stars as well in Meltokio," Lloyd said suddenly. "All the light…"

"Yeah… They're… Nice," she replied. _Oh come on… What the hell was that?_

More silence…

_Damnit. This is ridiculous. I've got the perfect opportunity and I'm just gonna waste it. Come on! You're not scared of anything Sheena. Especially not Lloyd… If you don't do it now you'll never do it…_

"Lloyd…"

"Mmm?"

"I-…"

She took a deep breath.

"Soooo, what're you two lil' love birds doin' up here-huh?"

_Mother FUCKER!_

More silence…

Lloyd and Sheena both turned around to see Zelos standing there, a huge grin on his face and a bottle in his hand. "I… Didn't say that out loud did I?" Sheena asked hesitantly.

"Say what?"

"Err… Nothing. Never mind."

"Don't you two be using my personal balcony for anything naughty," Zelos said with yet another wink, desperately trying to point somewhere in their general direction and failing miserably. Sheena had to admit he must have pretty good balance considering the fact that he wasn't on the floor yet.

"Exactly how much have you had to drink?" she sighed.

"Not much... I think... I don' reallyy-ike alco- alco... hol," replied Zelos, trying to take a swig of a strange green-ish substance which ended up mostly down his shirt. "Maaaan you guys are sooooo booriiiiiiing! Come on, I'm taking you downstairs!" He grabbed Sheena's wrist and began to drag her away down to the depths of the party below. She turned around, giving Lloyd a glance that screamed 'Save me!' before she was out of sight.

By the time Lloyd got downstairs Zelos was on the floor with Sheena's boot on his back. Regal was deep in conversation with a handful of nobles, no doubt talking about the most boring subject they could think of, while Presea was standing in a corner and appeared to be fascinated by the wallpaper. Collette was standing not far from Zelos, glaring at a large group of girls who looked like they might pounce on Zelos at any time if she didn't maintain the most threatening expression possible.

"I didn't think you'd need me," laughed Lloyd. "Thought I might come down just in case."

"My hero," she smiled, giving Zelos a quick kick in the ribs.

"Some people just have no respect! Trying to beat me up in my own home!" cried Zelos, getting up from the floor and waving his arms around frantically.

"What do you mean **trying**?"

"... Shut up..."

Suddenly the front doors were flung open, banging loudly against the walls and causing Zelos to shriek loudly and jump into the arms of Sheena, who promptly dropped him.

"Zelos Wilder!" came a stern, yet feminine voice from the doorway.

"Oh crap... I'm not he- ... Hang on a minute... Is that? Oh my _gawd_ it's Raine!" squealed Zelos. He got up from the floor and ran towards her, opening his arms wide to hug her and leaning his face forward, ready to give her a big wet kiss. She slapped him hard round the face before he even got close, sending him to the floor.

"I don't remember saying you could touch me..." she sighed.

"Oww... That hurt," mumbled Zelos, his eyes big and watery, staring up at Raine. "What is it with you people and putting me on the floor? Do I have a sign saying 'knock me over' stuck to my head or something?"

"You're just more useful that way. We need somewhere to wipe our shoes," laughed Sheena from across the room.

"That really hurt me Sheena. On the _inside_... So what brings you to my humble abode huh Raine? Just couldn't get enough of me huh? You missed me didn't you?"

"I missed you as much as I miss chewing on razor blades... We just happened to arrive in Meltokio this morning. Coming here wasn't my idea anyway, it was his," said Raine, pointing to Genis who had just walked through the door.

"Why weren't we invited to your party?" he cried.

"How was I supposed to know you were in town?" Zelos replied shrugging his shoulders. "Besides I wouldn't have invited _you_ anyway... Midget," he added, pressing down on Genis' head.

"I'm a perfectly normal height for someone my age damnit!"

"What, six?" he cackled.

"Don't make me hurt you!"

"Ooooooh... I'm **reeeeeally** scared"

"Fireball!"

Zelos let out a high pitched squeak and jumped behind Raine, suddenly realising a few seconds later that Genis hadn't actually used any magic and coughing nervously. "I was just kidding..." he murmured.

"Genis! Buddy!" called Lloyd as he ran over to greet them.

"Lloyd! How've you been?"

"Err... Well... Not too bad I guess. How about you?"

"Well it's pretty tiring travelling around all the time, especially since she refuses to use the Rheiards... Says it'll be good for me to get some exercise." He leant closer to Lloyd to whisper in his ear. "I'm telling you... She's crazy... I swear she's gonna end up killing me one of these days!"

"What was that Genis?"

"I- Err... Nothing... I was just telling him how a lot of people still won't accept half-elves as people..." he smiled nervously.

Raine let out a deep sigh. "He's right though... It's not quite as bad with the people from Sylverant, but the Tethe'allans don't seem to be accepting it in the slightest."

"Don't you worry! If anyone gives you any trouble you just call on me any time, and we'll see who's laughing then!" Zelos managed to slur together.

"Ugh... Right... Thanks..."

Collette, who had been too busy keeping an eye on the myriads of young girls just waiting for a slice of Zelos, came rushing over to greet Raine and Genis and in her haste managed to get her foot caught on a rug and trip in almost the exact same spot she had earlier.

"Oooww... Zelos we really need to get rid of that thing..." she mumbled from the floor.

Raine couldn't help but laugh briefly but soon recovered her cool indifferent appearance. "It's good to see you again Collette." she smiled.

"This is so great! All of us back together again! We all have so much to catch up on!" Collette cried, seemingly about to explode with excitement.

But instead it was the lights around the house that exploded. Glass shattered, sending fragments spinning through the air and the candles were blown out as a chilling gust of air blew through the entirety of the house. Suddenly a window shattered as a harsh contrast of bright white skin and black wings burst through it. The moonlight made his face seem all the more ghostly, and the only colour that could be seen anywhere on him were his bright green eyes. He walked up to the group that had formed around the door, drawing a large obsidian sword from his back and pointing it at Lloyd.

Men and women rapidly flowed through any exit they could find, until the only ones left inside the house were the eight heroes, each of them with weapons drawn, including Sheena who had her cards hidden beneath her dress, just in case.

"Drop your weapons, all of you." the stranger said, a wry grin on his face.

"Drop our weapons? Who the hell are you?" shouted Lloyd, raising his sword in defiance.

"Who are you to ask for my name?"

"I- ... Hang on... Damnit! That's what I'm supposed to say!"

"I'll say it one more time. Drop your weapons or I'll have to use force to take them."

"You and what army?" cried Sheena mockingly.

"Well... I suppose since you asked..." He clicked his fingers loudly and the group felt another cold gust of wind. At least a dozen black and white shapes appeared on the floor immediately, before appearing to drip upwards and form themselves into more wraithlike white faces, with black feathery wings outstretched behind them, and pointing swords at their faces. They were surrounded.

"I just had to ask didn't I?" Sheena sighed.

"Don't you guys worry, I'll handle this," mumbled Zelos as he stumbled towards the obvious leader of this group of demonic looking angels. "Look buddy. We're kinda in the middle of a party here and I don't believe you were invited. Maybe next time O.k? Now can you get out of my house?"

The man simply laughed. His expression soon turned deadly serious however, and he hit Zelos with the hilt of his sword, knocking him out instantly. Lloyd rushed at the man immediately, trying desperately to slash at him, but his attacks were knocked away without any serious protest. Genis and Raine's spells were interrupted almost as quickly as they were started and they were soon lying in heaps on the floor leaving only five of them to defeat more than ten opponents.

"Ugh... I can't fight in this dress!" screamed Sheena as she slashed aimlessly with her cards, unable to hit anything, simply trying to block any attacks that came her way. She heard Collette scream behind her and turned around, only to be hit in the back of the head. She fell to the floor, her vision blurring before her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lloyd's sword knocked away from him and tried to cry out as she saw the dark seraphim's blade run through his shoulder.

_Lloyd!..._

Her voice couldn't escape her throat however, and her body gave way onto the floor as her vision went completely black.

* * *

A/N: If the hours and hours worth of dialogue in this chapter made you cry (Like it did me) I'm sorry... I tried to stop it but it just wouldn't die. Anyway I'm glad I _finally_ got this chapter done. Had some trouble submitting it for some reason but all is well. Comment away!


	7. Trapped

Sheena was suddenly blasted with an unwelcome wave of consciousness. She felt cold and damp, and not unlike she'd been strapped to the underside of a boot owned by someone who enjoyed running twenty four-seven. She slowly opened her eyes, letting the dark blur turn into a small room as her eyes were forcefully woken from a nice relaxing nap. She noticed bars on one side of the room… This was a cell.

_Hang on… Is that Collette… Sitting on a wall?_

She began to take a step forward in an attempt to check on Collette, but stopped when she realised her own face was pressed against the cool, slightly moist floor. She pushed herself up from the ground, but soon found herself slumped back onto the floor when her legs were too weak to support her.

Looking around the cell she could see Collette sitting with her back to the wall, her knees up against her chest, and Presea curled up in a corner. Nothing that could be used to break or bend the bars, unless you counted Collette's seemingly indestructible body... Outside there was nothing but a barren rocky wall and the bars were far too close together for her to stick her head through and look around. She would usually carry a mirror, or at least something pointed that was shiny enough to use for looking round a corner, but it seemed the only things that hadn't been taken were her dress and her hairpin. Quite considerate now that she thought about it...

She sat there for a while listening for any footsteps, voices or the distinguished sound of food that one can somehow hear after just waking up to an empty stomach, when suddenly Collette stirred and seemed to mumble something about curry sauce and ice-cream.

Sheena dragged herself over to the wall alongside Collette, whispered her name quietly, and then proceeded to roughly poke her in the shoulder.

"Mmmnnehcabbag- Whu... Uuh..." She opened her eyes groggily and raised her head from her knees.

"Are you awake?" asked Sheena.

"Nnn- I don't think so..." she replied, sliding onto the floor and resting her head on her hands like a pillow. She suddenly shot up. "Where's my bed? Sheena? What- ... Are we in prison?" blurted out Collette, now more hyperactive than Zelos in a room full of lingerie.

"Calm down... I know just as much as you do. Last thing I can remember is being hit on the head, and now we're here."

"Where's everyone else?"

"No idea... I assume they wanted to keep us split up in case we tried anything."

Collette sighed. "... Lloyd..." She suddenly realised her mistake, covering her mouth with one hand. "I- I mean- I was just... concerned about him. I... I saw him fighting that man so I was worried." She exclaimed cheerily, waving her hand out in front of herself. Sheena wasn't convinced...

"Aren't you worried about Zelos too?"

"Oh! Of course! I-… I love Zelos… I just- I don't think I ever really got over Lloyd… Sorry, I know you two are together. You're just so lucky to have him…" she sighed.

"I- Err… Yeah…" _…Together..._

"AAAAGH!"

Collette and Sheena jumped up from the floor instinctively. "What the hell was that?" cried Sheena.

"Watch where you're going!"

"That… Sounded like Zelos!" squeaked Collette.

"Collette? Oh hunny are you o.k?" they heard Zelos shout.

"Yes, yes I'm fine… Where are you? You sound far away."

"I'm in a cel- Lloyd get off me!"

"Err… What's going on in there?" called Sheena.

"I dunno, Lloyd just _jumped_ on me! You obviously haven't been satisfying him have you Sheena?"

"I didn't jump on you, idiot! Collette, Sheena, don't touch the bars o.k? There's some kind of barrier there… THAT'S why I was thrown on top off you!" Lloyd shouted, and from the sounds of things elbowed Zelos.

"Oh _suuuuuure_ Lloyd, the cell just _threw_ you at me… I noticed Sheena didn't deny it either," Zelos said, adding by far the most evil cackle any of them had ever heard.

"Zelos do you really think I'm never going to see you again?" called Sheena.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well I just assumed you wouldn't want to die so early in your life, but… Apparently you don't mind being brutally slaughtered," she replied.

"… I'm sorry…" he called back with a whimper.

"Sheena is there anyone else in there with you?" called Lloyd. "We've got Genis in here."

"It's just us and Presea… No sign of Raine or Regal though."

"We're both in here," Raine shouted, sounding further away than Lloyd and Zelos.

"Nice of you to join the conversation babe," Zelos called.

"… I'll pretend I didn't hear you say that…"

"What? It's a compliment!"

"… Anyway… What's the plan then? As far as I can tell these barriers will repel anything we throw at them, including magic," Raine continued, ignoring Zelos.

"I have no idea… I doubt any of you have your weapons, and we certainly don't, so there's no way we can even try attacking it…" replied Lloyd.

"So we're just gonna sit here and wait?" Sheena cried.

"To be honest it looks like that's the only choice we have," called Raine. "Even if we did manage to get out we have no idea where we are. It's unlikely that we could escape."

"Regal, can't you do that crazy hand thingy you did last time we were stuck in cells?" asked Zelos.

"If I wanted a flaming ball of energy to bounce off these barriers into my face, then yes I could." Regal replied, without even a hint of sarcasm.

"Man… I hate waiting…"

**Zzzzap**

"Aaagh!"

**Thud**

"… Zelos I said not to touch it," Lloyd sighed.

"I was just testing it," he groaned in reply.

Suddenly a soft humming began somewhere above them. It rose in pitch before lowering again and eventually stopping completely. There was an ear-piercing screech of metal-on-metal and then a loud metallic creak as the cell doors slowly opened.

"… Sweet, I broke it! It obviously couldn't handle how awesome I am," Zelos boomed proudly.

"Or it just couldn't comprehend your stupidity," shot back Sheena.

"Whatever… The point is I saved the day, again," he called walking towards the open cell door.

"Are you completely stupid? Don't leave the cell!" Raine cried.

"Raine I wouldn't think you the kind of person to ask such an obvious question," Sheena laughed.

"Well it was more of a rhetorical question to be honest… That's not the point! Zelos do you really think the door just magically opened itself?" asked Raine.

"Well… certain females have told me I have the 'magic touch', if you know what I mean?"

"I hope for the sake of the world that you don't mean what I think you mean…"

"You know you want it."

"Zelos!" Collette cried, sounding like she'd just received the harshest insult of her life.

"Aaaw hunny you know I was just joking," he said softly, his voice suddenly sounding smooth and creamy.

"Aawww… One day I'm gonna figure out how you do that and I'm gonna use it on you!" she replied, trying to resist the urge to giggle and failing miserably.

"Wh-… Please tell me I'm not the only one who is slightly frightened by this," Raine called.

"Oh yeah… We didn't get a chance to mention before did we? Zelos and Collette are getting married. Don't worry it still scares the hell out of me," Sheena replied matter-of-factly.

"Sheena! You have NO idea how to announce an engagement do you?" Zelos cried.

"Well it's not like it's an important thing. After all it's only _you_…"

"Don't you realise what this means Sheena? We're finally safe! Of course it's important!" Raine cried, sounding absolutely overjoyed. "Of course it's a shame Collette had to be sacrificed…"

"You people give me a bad name… I'm not _that_ bad," sighed Zelos.

"Yes… Of course… But getting back to the matter at hand, it's clear these cells weren't opened accidentally. We're being watched. If we go out there we have no idea what might happen. There may be a highly sophisticated security system just outside waiting to remove our heads if we take even one step outside. At the very least they're trying to herd us somewhere else like cattle."

"Moo! I'd rather be anywhere but here!" Zelos cried.

"It's far too dangerous, and even though I hate to admit it, even **_I_** don't want you to die…"

"Woah, woah… Hang on a minute… I think the question we all want to ask here is… Did Zelos just say 'Moo'?" said Genis sleepily.

"When did you wake up? … And yes I did say 'Moo'…"

"A while ago… Weirdo…"

"ANYWAY! … We get distracted far too easily," Raine sighed. "Like I said, we can't just go aimlessly wandering around this place. We don't know what kind of traps might be strewn about the place."

"Why don't I just make a Stalagmite outside? If it doesn't get blown up then it's obviously not motion sensitive," suggested Genis.

"… Well I suppose that is a good idea…" she replied.

"O.k people stand back… You don't wanna get hit with a bunch of rock if it does explode." They did as he suggested and he walked closer to the bars of the cell. He closed his eyes, mumbling some incantations too quietly for the rest of them to hear. The gentle magical winds played with his clothes, and pebbles darted around the floor of the cell. "Stalagmite!"

As the words rang out through the hallway, and the rest of the cells within it, a large pointed shaft of rock was thrust through the ground, shooting upwards until it was deeply embedded in the ceiling, making a loud crashing and causing several other large chunks of rock to fall from it.

When the dust had finally cleared Genis shrugged his shoulders guiltily, adding "Whoops… I guess I kinda overdid it! … Well at least now we know that nothing's gonna try and kill us if we walk out…"

They each carefully walked out of their cells, looking around for any sign of something that might pose a threat. When Raine was finally satisfied she walked slowly towards Genis and smacked him on the head as hard as she could.

"What are you trying to do, bring the entire room down on top of us?" screamed Raine.

"Oooow… It was an accident! Besides, it worked didn't it?" he replied, rubbing his head.

"I guess..."

"Woah! Hey, guys, all our weapons are here!" called Lloyd as he turned into a small alcove at the end of the corridor.

"Lloyd, don't- Hang on... You're going to take them no matter what I say aren't you?" Raine asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"Yep."

"Fine then! Just do what you like... Don't come crying to me when you get yourselves killed..."

"Raine, if we were dead we wouldn't be crying, or going anywhere near you now would we?" asked Zelos in the most demeaning tone he could muster.

"Doesn't anybody understand the concept of figures of speech?" she sighed again.

"I don't get it though... Why wouldn't we take them? They're _our_ weapons!" Lloyd asked in the confused tone that seemed to accompany most of his speech when talking to Raine.

"Well for a start they could have been booby trapped. Clearly they _want_ us to have them, otherwise they wouldn't have just left them here, or opened the cell doors for us. I don't like the idea of playing by their rules... Whoever they might be."

"Well... Surely if something does happen it would be better if we could defend ourselves?"

"Geez Raine, thought you'd be smart enough to figure _that_ one out," chuckled Zelos.

She raised her hand above his head and he leapt behind Collette, cowering in fear.

"Geez Zelos, I didn't think you'd be scared of a _girl_," Sheena called imitating his voice to perfection.

"But... When she hits it really hurts!"

Lloyd began to pass everyone their weapons, handing Sheena her cards, Zelos his sword, Raine her staff, suddenly stopping when he reached a large axe.

"Err... Guys? Where's Presea?"

Collette's face was rapidly painted scarlet as she realised. "Oh! Whoops... I guess we forgot to wake her up!"

"I'll go get her!" Genis cried, before Collette had even stopped talking, and rushed into the cell that she had emerged from. He stepped gingerly up to Presea's small curled up form and bent down to wake her. He put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently, calling her name.

"Uuugh..." She sat up against the earthy wall. "Genis? What's going on?"

He simply sat there staring at her face for a while, before realising he had actually been asked a question. "Oh! Err... Umm... Well we were stuck in these cells see? And then they opened and Raine said we shouldn't go outside but I did a Stalagmite and it was o.k so we left and then we found our weapons and Lloyd found your axe so I came to get you because Sheena and Collette forgot to wake you up! Err... Yeah..." He was now blushing fiercely.

"O.k... Umm... Would you mind if I got up?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh! Right... Err... Yeah," he said, noticing that he had been leaning on her and quickly standing up.

They both walked out of the cell and took their weapons from Lloyd. The group now made up a small semi-circle around Lloyd and they stood there staring at him.

"What? Don't look at me! I don't know what to do," cried Lloyd, raising his hands in front of himself defensively.

"Maybe we should start looking for a way out?" said Raine. "It seems like the obvious suggestion to me."

"Yeah, let's go with that..."

They left through the only available exit, a narrow corridor leading away from the prison cells. They soon arrived at the end of a slightly larger hallway, which contained 4 more corridors branching off on the sides and another that continued forwards, stretching deep into the rocky walls, the end not visible to them.

"Ah... Damn... Which way are we gonna go now?" Lloyd sighed.

"Ooh, ooh! I know!" cried Zelos, who barged past the rest of them and stood in the centre of the 4 branching corridors.

"What-"

He closed his eyes and began to spin around as fast as he could with one arm out, his finger pointed to each of them as he spun. After about a minute he stopped spinning and stumbled around a bit. He then fell on his back so that his finger was pointing towards the ceiling, and shouted "THAT ONE!"

"Great idea Zelos! Let's just fly up through the rock!" replied Sheena, her hands clasped together and her face a mask of absolute amazement.

"What are you talking about? I meant that one!" he said, sitting up and pointing to the corridor on the far right.

"Very good idea Zelos, but I think we'll pass thank you…" sighed Raine yet again.

Regal stepped forward from the back of the group. "Perhaps we should just humour him this once. We don't have any idea where we are, so any way we choose is going to be almost completely random."

Raine deliberated for a few seconds, apparently torn between the most sensible option and not allowing Zelos to be right. "… O.k fine, we'll take that path… But I bet it doesn't lead anywhere…"

She walked over to the entrance of the corridor, took a small brown bag from her pocket and poured what looked like large ruby beads into her hand. She noticed the puzzled expressions on everyone's faces and quickly said, "Before you ask, I'm making sure I've marked off this corridor… In case we get lost?"

Lloyd's expression still suggested he understood as much about this as he did about complicated algebra.

"So we don't go down the same hallway twice?" Raine finally sighed, triggering a loud "Oooooooooh!" from Lloyd. "Anyway, come on. I want to get out of here as soon as possible," she called back to them and strode off down the dark corridor.

Though there were small torches set on the walls in places, they were few in number and did almost nothing to illuminate the long stretching corridor. After a while Sheena got fed up and summoned Luna to help shed some light on where exactly they were going, but after what felt like hours of walking, hundreds of twists and turns and several hills and sharp drops that they couldn't see despite Luna's help, she felt far too tired to continue the summon and they were forced to walk in almost complete darkness once again.

After about another hour or so they noticed the torches becoming far more frequent, and a small rectangle of light could be seen in the distance. They quickened their pace; wanting nothing more than to be out of the gloom of this corridor.

When they were finally out there was no sigh of relief, no rejoicing, because they now found themselves in another hallway similar to the one they were in earlier. 4 corridors branching off at the sides, one of which they had entered from, and 2 more at each end.

"Ugh… Which way now then?" mumbled Lloyd.

"I don't know!" cried Raine, who looked completely dishevelled. "… We need to take a break…"

They all sat down against the hard stone walls, willing their legs and feet to stop aching. After a few minutes something red caught Zelos' eye, and he crawled over to investigate.

"… Raine…"

"What is it now?"

"… Is this one of your red thingies?" he asked, holding up one of the large round beads above his head.

She slid further down the wall and buried her head in her knees. "Damnit! … Ugh…. The two corridors on the right must have been joined… We've just gone in a big circle!"

"Brilliant… Trust Zelos to get us lost!" Sheena shouted.

"Hey! It's not my fault you decided to trust my stupid plan!" he shot back.

"Hey! Look it's too late now, it's already happened. Which way are we gonna go next?" Lloyd cried, attempting to keep the peace.

Raine thought for a moment, before raising her head from her knees. "Well… We can only assume that the left side will be the same as the right… I think our best bet would be to just go straight on."

"O.k… Anyone else got any better ideas?" asked Lloyd, but he was met with nothing but silence. "Alright then, let's get going." And with that he turned and walked off down the seemingly endless hallway. The rest of them got up and began to follow, Sheena running ahead to catch up with Lloyd.

"I-… I'm sorry… I just…" muttered Sheena.

"No, it's fine… We're all just a bit tired," he replied, smiling back at her.

"Heh… Yeah…" Thankfully the darkness helped to hide the fact that she was blushing, and they walked onwards into the blackness in almost complete silence.

* * *

"Ha ha ha ha! You should have seen the look on the smart one's face when she realised! Priceless!"

"I'm sure it was hilarious sir."

"Garm?"

"Yes?"

"Are all the traps in place?"

"Of course sir."

"Good… I must admit I'd like them to all make it here alive but… It'll be fun to watch!" He laughed again. A cold, deep, malicious laugh.

"Hey Garm? You think my laugh's alright?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well I mean… It doesn't sound too insane does it? I don't sound crazy do I?"

"Well… I suppose there may be a hint of madness in it, sir."

The man stroked his chin for a moment. "… Excellent!"

* * *

A/N: Well it took a while but it's here. Curse writer's block!

Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed


	8. Disclosure

A/N: Sorry I havn't updated in a while... I didn't start this chapter for a while and I had a lot of interruptions. It's here now though, and almost 6000 words so I guess it's not too bad...

* * *

They had been walking for hours. Or at least it felt like hours, but it was hard to tell when there was nothing to focus on, no point that you could see getting closer and closer as you approached it. There weren't even any twists or turns or bumps or crevices. Just a huge black expanse that seemed to stretch on in front of them forever. 

But then suddenly Lloyd stopped at the front of the group.

"Can someone give me some light?"

Raine stepped forward and help her staff above her. "Make it quick. I don't want to use up too much energy," she said softly, as radiant light erupted from the tip of her staff. The hallway had opened up into an almost round room. Lloyd was standing at one end, his hand on a sharp corner where the corridor now split into two.

"Brilliant... Anyone got any ideas?" he sighed.

"Well clearly we have to go left," Raine replied immediately.

"Err... Mind explaining why?" asked Zelos, looking slightly perplexed.

"Can't you see it?" she asked, sounding slightly impatient. She bent down to the ground and picked up a small rock, a tiny grin appearing on her face for just a moment before she stood up and faced towards the corridor on the right.

"Oh! I see it now!" Collette cried as Raine threw the rock into the passage and her powerful angelic eyes picked out the mechanism running along the wall. The second the rock hit the floor an enormous chunk of solid stone fell from the ceiling crashing into the ground and completely crushing the small rock. After a few seconds it began to slowly rise up, ready to mash anything else that passed underneath.

"Left it is!" called Zelos, shoving his fist into the air.

Again they walked on into the darkness, but this time was different. Before long a soft red light began to illuminate the walls around them, and they all soon noticed that it was far hotter than it had been before. Small beads of perspiration rolled down their noses and cheeks, dripping onto the floor with a minute splash that only Collette could hear.

The heat increased rapidly as they continued down the corridor, the walls getting ever redder, seeming to bend and sway in the haze. Soon enough they could see a corner in this distance, the walls around it glowing brightly, and as soon as they rounded it their worst fears were confirmed.

The corridor lead out onto a small ledge that overlooked a large square room, with a low ceiling. Four walls, the floor and the ceiling were all raging with tempestuous fire, glowing brightly and more intensely than even those in the Fire temple or those conjured by Efreet. (Though of course he would never admit it) The flames raging upon the low ceiling licked at their heads as if with a fervent hunger, and they were forced to duck down low to avoid their heads being completely burnt. Lloyd could see the ends of his boots turning black just from being close to them.

"Great! Just what we need! A swirling sea of fire!" cried Sheena enthusiastically.

"I think this may be more of a hindrance to our progress Sheena," Presea replied, looking more than slightly confused.

"Presea when we get back you have to look up 'sarcasm' in a dictionary…"

"Sarcasm? 'A sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark'… But wha-… Oh… Oh I think I understand now… That was very funny Sheena."

"Yeah… Right… It kinda makes it less funny if you over-analyse it like that…"

"Guys? I think there are slightly more important things at hand than teaching Presea how to take a joke," cried Zelos, whimpering as the dancing flames singed part of his long red hair.

"Right… Can anyone see a way to turn these things off?" asked Lloyd.

There was a resounding mumble of a no, and a groan at what that meant.

"Don't even think about suggesting we're gonna just walk or jump across or something, because even someone as optimistic as you or Collette couldn't possibly think that possible," Zelos groaned. "… Possibly…"

"Of course not… But… Maybe Collette could fly us over or something?"

"Don't be stupid. What if there was some other trap? Or if she fell? She'd be burnt to a crisp in seconds!" Raine shouted.

"Hey! … I'm… Smarter than I used to be… A bit… Well fine then what do you suggest?"

"Well… Sheena? Could you try summoning Undine? And Genis you can also try to douse the flames with some water. Surely if both of you try at once we should be able to put them out at least long enough for us to get across."

"I guess it's worth a try," Sheena mumbled.

"I'll give it a shot."

They stood side by side on the edge of the platform and begun murmuring their incantations as steam swirled round them from the quickly evaporating water mana leaking from them.

"You ready?"

"Yep."

"I call upon the maiden of the mist! Come, Undine!"

"Tidal Wave!"

Their words rang out across the room as an enormous geyser of water burst forth from the centre of the room, and at the same time a huge torrent of water gushed forth from behind Genis, completely soaking him from head to toe.

But it didn't have quite the effect they were looking for. As the water shot out of the ground and up towards the ceiling it was evaporated almost instantly as it touched the flames. Genis' wave of water was turned into an enormous cloud before it could even touch the floor, which rose up towards the ceiling and simply left the room feeling slightly more humid.

When all the water had cleared the only sign that anything had happened was a small circle of bare ground in the centre of the room where Undine's geyser had sprouted from, and the flames soon crawled over it, engulfing it once again and burning away any remaining water.

"Well that didn't work…" sighed Lloyd.

"Hmm... Maybe we're approaching this the wrong way. Perhaps we could get Gnome to make us a bridge across rather than get rid of the flames?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea... How do we know the flames won't just spread onto the bridge? How about using ice? I'll try summoning Celsius. Hopefully it'll stay solid long enough for us to get across..."

"Are you sure it'll be cold enough?"

"Of course it will! I'm the Queen of cold!" replied Celsius, who was suddenly standing behind Sheena.

"Err... But- I didn't summon you yet!" Sheena cried.

"Yeah well... I was bored. Come on do the incantation!"

"Err..." She looked around nervously.

"Hurry up. It's hot in here."

"Right. Sorry... Err. I call upon the disciple of everlasting ice! Come, Celsius!"

The cold silvery skin of the summon spirit began to glow a radiant blue. She hovered in the air for a moment and then there was a sudden flash of light as the blue glow exploded outwards, filling the room and condensing into a frozen see-through mass. The flames could still be seen raging intensely below the ice.

"… Aren't you gonna run across it?"

"Oh… Err… Yeah… Come on! Hurry!"

"Psh… Humans…"said the summon spirit, disappearing in a flash of blue light.

Sheena hopped down from the ledge, the rest following her immediately. They made their way across the ice as fast as possible, most of them giving up trying to run after the first few steps and instead sliding their feet along the smooth slippery surface.

Just as Lloyd had reached the centre of the room, bright glowing tendrils shot out from the walls, curling around his arms and legs and stopping him in his tracks. Zelos pulled out his sword as he slid past, stabbing it into the ice to stop himself from moving. He turned to the rest of them.

"Go!" he shouted, waving a hand at them and turning back towards Lloyd. He pulled his sword from the ice and began trying to cut at the cord wrapped tightly around his left arm.

The others stopped for only a moment, looked at each other, then carried on moving. Collette however, being unhindered by the ice thanks to her wings, turned around and flew back, taking out a chakram and hacking at one of the cords around Lloyd's leg.

"I thought I said to go?" Zelos sighed, still sawing away at his glowing rope. The one Collette was working on snapped as if in answer to him. "Man… You make me just seem useless."

She smiled at him. "I'm sorry."

"Aren't you gonna tell us to go? Save ourselves? Huh Lloyd?"

"Like you would…" he sighed, hanging pathetically from the curling tendrils.

"Heh. Good point." Another one snapped and Collette stood up to cut the one attached to his other arm.

"Err… Guys… You might wanna speed it up a bit!" Sheena called. Steam was rising from the floor and walls as the flames began to poke through the melted ice. Zelos felt a sharp pain on his leg and realised as he jumped back that stabbing his sword into the ice probably wasn't a good idea.

"Shit." He pulled his arm back and swung violently at the cord, finally breaking through it. The last one snapped a second later and Lloyd dropped onto the ice, landing on one knee.

"Thanks… But…" They turned around. The ice was rapidly collapsing onto the flames, which would soon surround them.

"Nice knowing you guys," laughed Zelos. "Wha-" Collette had grabbed his arm, and done the same to Lloyd. She jerked her arms back heavily, almost knocking them over, then threw them both as hard as she could to the other side of the room. Regal stuck his leg out behind him to brace himself, and managed to catch Lloyd, while Zelos ended up in a heap on top of Sheena.

Collette dove towards them, her wings bursting from her back and she cut through the air, rushing towards them. The fire was faster however and as the ice gave in to it's burning embrace the flames leapt upward to wrap around her. She flew into the hallway seemingly unharmed, but as she touched down to the ground she fell to her knees. Her sleeves were almost completely burnt away and her arms and legs were both a deep shade of red.

"Collette!" Zelos cried, jumping off of Sheena (Much to her surprise) and rushing over to help her.

"Oww…"

"What were you thinking?"

"I-… I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Stop apologising!" cried both Zelos and Lloyd.

"I'm… I mean…"

"Just relax… Raine? Can you heal her or something?"

"I can heal up any major damage it may have done but… I can't get rid of the burn… It'll still hurt," she replied as she walked over to them.

"It's O.k professor… Besides… I don't really need to use my legs anyway," she smiled.

"Trust you to look on the bright side." She held her staff over Collette's body and closed her eyes. "Heal!"

The revitalising energy flowed into her body, winding it's way around her battered skin and returning it almost to it's original colour.

"Thanks."

"Oh," she reached into one of her inside pockets. "And drink this. It'll help," she added, handing Collette a small bottle of green-ish liquid. She took the bottle and drank it all immediately, her expression changing to one of absolute disgust for only an instant, before returning to it's usual cheery self.

"Can you move?" asked Lloyd. "I don't mean to be insensitive but, you know... We have to keep going..."

"It's Okay! I'm... Okay," She said, extending her wings and hovering just above the ground. "See? I can fly fine."

Zelos frowned. He knew she wouldn't let them fuss over her if she was hurt though, so he simply smiled and added "Okay, just make sure you tell us if you're tired or anything. We can afford to rest for a while." She smiled and nodded enthusiastically, but he knew she was lying... At least she didn't look too hurt.

"Let's keep moving," said Raine in a commanding tone, rising up from her knees and pointing her staff down the dark corridor. "We're not out of here yet..."

* * *

"Aaaaah man... I was sure one of them was gonna die in that room... I like watching them burn." 

"I know you do."

"I am kind of glad the red one didn't die but... Eh... I'm bored now."

"Shall I take care of them?"

"Oh no... Just show them the way. I'll deal with them myself." He said calmly, his mouth curling into a wicked smile.

* * *

After leaving the room full of fire they had been lead down more curves and twists and turns, each one seeming to make them almost go back the way they just came. Thankfully there hadn't been any more branching corridors but Lloyd had a horrible feeling that their good luck wouldn't last, and the curves were almost as bad anyway. 

They hadn't been walking for long before they turned a particularly large, round corner and were faced with an incredibly bright light. It was almost blinding and they all found themselves moving their hands in front of their eyes to try and shield themselves from the light.

"Great. What now?" Lloyd sighed. "Wait- Is that?" As they neared the source of the light he noticed that there was something in between it and them. It had a human figure, cast as a black silhouette by the intense glow, and was deadly still. At first he had assumed it was some kind of statue, but after a few moment large feathery wings stretched out from it's back, setting the ghostly outline of an angel into the light.

He took a few more steps forward, cautiously, and drew a sword from it's sheath. As he moved closer he could begin to see vague features of the figure's body. His arms were crossed in front of his bare, ivory chest and- He stopped suddenly, moving back a step.

"It's... It's that angel from before!" he shouted, turning round to face the rest of the group.

The silhouette turned slowly to the right and began to walk straight ahead, his movements appearing mechanical, and nothing but his legs moving.

"Hey! Wait!" Lloyd drew his other sword and ran after him.

"Lloyd, no!" Sheena called, and followed after him, holding one arm in front to shield her eyes. He stopped next to the light, which appeared to be some kind of enormous gemstone, and looked down the corridor the angel had walked down but saw nothing. Once again there were 4 passages leading off, one on each side of the crystal making a square.

"Damnit!" he cried and punched the nearest wall.

"What do you mean? Don't you remember what happened last ti- ... You..." she trailed off, turning her head away from him at the memory of seeing the blade run through his shoulder.

His expression changed as he recalled his last encounter, and he quickly put a hand to his shoulder. "Oh... Yeah... What- Exactly happened there anyway?" he asked looking slightly puzzled, and as he took his hand away she understood why. There was no hole, no blood, and in fact his clothes were not even torn from where the blade had been. He pulled an arm out of his shirt and pulled it down to reveal his bare shoulder. Sheena quickly looked away, hoping that he hadn't seen her face instantly turn scarlet, but as she turned her head back hesitantly all she could see was a tiny scar where there should have been a gaping hole.

"I... Did I imagine it?" she asked, looking up into her head as if trying to recall the memory again.

"You mean me getting a sword plunged into me? Unless we imagined the same thing I'm pretty sure it happened..."

"But- I mean- Who could have fixed it?"

"Raine you didn't happen to heal me before we got put into those cells did you?" he said, looking around for her. "Raine?"

"Mmm? Just... Hold on a minute... This-" She ran her hand over the smooth gleaming surface of the enormous white jewel. "This is amazing... How did they find one this big?"

"Oh no," Genis sighed, putting a hand to his head. "She's so embarrassing when she's like this..."

"Is the actual crystal emitting the light?" She ran her fingers round it's base presumably trying to find some form of wire. "Hmm... I wonder if..." She tried to lift it out of the ground, but couldn't get a grip on it. She then took out a notepad from one of her pockets and started scribbling a few symbols and equations onto it.

Zelos walked over to the huge glowing gem. He tilted his head to the side for a moment, then drew his sword.

"What are yo-"

He swung at it, cutting off a large chunk which lay on the ground shining brightly.

"ARE YOU MAD? Do you know how valuable this is?" Raine screamed.

"Nope... Not at all."

"You!- Uaagh! ... Wait... It's still glowing!" She scribbled some more notes down.

"Yeah I thought it might... We can use it as a torch."

"Wow... Zelos did something sensible?" Sheena laughed.

"If you call mutilating a precious artefact sensible... Actually... Zelos can you do it again, I want some samples," Raine added.

"Why yes of course your majesty! I'd be happy to serve you!"

"Good."

He raised a finger and opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't think of a decent response, and cut off another chunk of the stone.

"Can we hurry up please? I don't want to lose that guy!" Lloyd said impatiently

"You don't even know where we're going!" cried Raine.

"Well I know which way I'm going..." he replied, his tone absolutely resolute.

"Did you ever think that maybe he's leading us into a trap?"

"... Yyyeeeeeeaaah..."

"You didn't did you?"

"... No..." he sighed. "But even so... It's not like we have any other options. At least if we go this way we know _one_ of the things we're going to find."

"True... Plus their traps so far have been pretty basic. We shouldn't run into anything too troublesome."

"Okay then... Let's get going."

"Aaaw... But-" She sighed. "Alright, fine." She stood up again and followed them into the hallway, as Lloyd took off at what was almost a slow jog.

_Man... What is it with guys and revenge?_ Thought Sheena.

"Oh..."

As they came to their first inevitable corner they met something they hadn't expected. Another room. The floor was damp, and had puddles in places and there was a large thick pillar in the centre of the room.

"Well... At least we don't have to walk for ages." Lloyd laughed. "I don't like the look of that pillar though. Stick to the walls."

They walked in through the entrance slowly and cautiously. The ceiling in this room was even lower than in the hallway, Regal's head almost touching the ceiling as he entered. As Lloyd walked across the room he turned so that he was always facing the column in the middle, just in case it... Did something... He wasn't sure what. Suddenly they heard the sound of rock grating against rock and they drew their weapons, realising too late that it was the sound of doors closing off the entrance and the exit to the room. Lloyd ran towards the doorway, diving at it in an attempt to stick his sword under it, but he was too late.

"Damnit again!"

They heard the sound again, rock on rock...

"Oh what now?"

The pillar in the centre of the room began to rise up until it was completely un-visible in the ceiling. There were a few seconds of silence...

"Wait... What's that sound? Asked Raine, tilting her head towards the centre of the room.

"Water!" cried Collette. "There's a hole in the middle of the floor!"

"Great! I kinda need a shower," replied Zelos.

"Quick find something to plug it up!" called Sheena, ignoring Zelos.

"There's nothing here to use!" cried Lloyd.

Water began to gush out of the hole, rapidly filling the room.

"I call upon the disciple of everlasting ice! Come, Celsius!" Sheena called frantically.

There was a blue flash and the summon spirit was before them once again. "You people are pretty useless without me aren't you?" she said, grinning at Sheena.

"Celsius! Just- Do the thing! Freeze it! Hurry!"

"You people are always in such a hurry..." sighed Celsius, pointing a hand towards the hole in the floor. "I'm a Summon Spirit you know? You're supposed to treat me with respect." There was a blue flash and the hole was now surrounded by a circle of ice, blocking the flow of water.

"Thank you."

"Now that's more like it." She disappeared in another blue flash and they were left with a new problem.

"Now what?"

"We've gotta break down this door!" said Lloyd. He attempted to get a run-up, but failed miserably with the knee-high water slowing him down, before jumping and kicking the door. Surprisingly absolutely nothing happened other than Lloyd getting completely soaked. "Err... Damn..."

Sheena waded up to the door and pressed her cards against it, shouting "Pyre Seal!" The door gave slightly, but even then only very slightly.

Regal tried next, walking over and kicking the door several times, but to no avail. "It's no good... The rock is too thick..."

"Look around for a switch or... Or something!" Raine called.

They all set to work looking and feeling around for anything on the walls that was out of place. They tried pressing in any jutting rocks that they felt but nothing moved, nothing happened.

Soon enough they heard a cracking sound. The ice was breaking under the pressure of the water beneath it.

"Err... Sheena can you do something about that?"

"Not so soon after the last time I summoned her!"

That instant the ice shattered, sending a huge spray of water upwards and into the room and only dying down when the water level was now up to their chests. It was still rising fast though... They would be completely under water in no time at all...

They gave up searching the walls, they couldn't see anything now anyway. As the water level rose Presea and Genis had to lift their feet off the ground to keep their heads above water and the rest of them seemed as if they were moving in slow motion.

"Well... This time it really has been nice knowing you guys," laughed Zelos.

"How can you still be such an idiot in the face of death!" cried Sheena angrily.

"Years of practice and one helluva lot of skill."

They were now all pressed up against the ceiling, and were turning their heads to the side so that they could breath. Suddenly Genis noticed Presea's expression change to one of what looked like realisation. She took a deep breath and sunk to the floor of the room.

"Presea!" Genis shouted. He stuck his head under the water and watched her walk slowly over to the door.

She took hold of her axe and held her arm back behind her. Her eyes closed and she simply stood there for a while, tiny bubbles rising from her mouth. "Bebblllsslllt!" she shouted abruptly and swung the axe at the door. A large gash was cut into the rock and the door caved in slightly as the entire room shook with the force of her swing. She brought her arm back behind her again.

Genis pulled his head up from the water, and hit it on the ceiling. "Shit- ... Ack-" He coughed up some water.

"What was that?"

"Err... You might want to sort of... Brace yourselves," he laughed. The others looked at him strangely.

The room shook again, and they were all rapidly sucked out as the water flowed down the corridor, carrying them with it. When the wave had finally subsided they were left drenched in heaps on the floor, all apart from Presea who was somehow still standing.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked, picking up her axe from where the water had carried it.

"Presea you saved us!" cried Genis, jumping up and running towards Presea to hug her, but getting gradually more embarrassed as he got closer. He ended up stopping a few feet from her and extending a hand.

Presea merely looked at it for a few seconds and then returned her gaze to Genis' face, causing him to blush again. "It was- Nothing..."

"Yeah it is! You broke down the door! Even Regal couldn't do it!"

"It is likely that he had weakened the structure of the rock. I simply provided the extra force..."

"Well... Err... It was still pretty cool..."

"I- Thank you."

"Alright you two love-birds, let's get moving," called Zelos, standing up and squeezing the water from his long, red hair.

"What is a 'love-bird'? I have never heard of it..." asked Presea.

"It's... Oh never mind."

"Good job Presea," said Lloyd, walking over and planting a hand on her shoulder. "You really saved our necks."

"I did save myself as well..." she murmured, now beginning to look slightly embarrassed.

"Well... I guess that's true... Anyway, we don't have any time to waste. Let's keep moving."

Again they pressed onwards, though this time they noticed that the corridor they were in was actually well lit. Braziers burned brightly on the walls, getting ever more frequent the further they travelled. They were even beginning to think that they might soon be out of this hell hole.

But as you might guess their optimism wasn't rewarded. A loud crash came from behind them and they half expected the ceiling to cave in completely. Upon turning around they saw that a door had closed behind them, presumably coming down from the ceiling again.

"Hmm... Why would they-" Lloyd started, but he was cut off.

Suddenly another one crashed down from above, this time about a metre closer to them, and they realised what was happening.

"Oh... Crap..."

The instant the next door touched the ground they ran as fast as they could, not even looking back to check how close the next one was. As they were running they could see several doors set into slots in the ceiling, each about a metre apart from the last. They could hear the doors starting to close faster now, much faster, and they were catching up.

They rounded a sharp corner to the right and were met with another, then two more to the left, making an 'S' shape. As they came out of the bend they didn't have to look back to know the doors were closing not far behind, as an even louder crash from behind confirmed and stones flew past their heads. However they could now see the exit to this tunnel, far ahead of them and brightly lit like something from a dream.

They quickened their pace, Raine and Genis almost struggling to keep up since they weren't exactly the most athletic of the group. Lloyd fell back slightly until he was almost in line with them, intent not to leave them if something went wrong.

As they approached the exit the doors behind were gaining on them, but as Lloyd looked behind he could see they were still far enough ahead to make it through the last one. However as he brought his head back round to look ahead he saw that the final door had already started closing. They were running too fast to stop in time now.

He put an arm each around Raine and Genis and tugged them towards the floor, rolling underneath the door just as it closed, and ending up sprawled on the floor, face first in the earth.

They stood up and brushed themselves clean of dirt in silence. Lloyd smiled nervously at Raine, and flinched as she brought a hand up to run through her hair.

"... Thanks..." she sighed and returned his uneasy smile, her face turning slightly pink.

Someone started clapping. It was loud, slow and sounded completely mocking.

"Well, well. Quite impressive."

Lloyd closed his eyes and sighed. He eventually turned towards the voice and his gaze met with a man, grinning wryly and half lying across a great silvery throne, which was raised on a podium of sorts. His hair was long and a vivid green, and he was encased in a cloak of the same colour. He turned to sit properly in the seat and cast his eyes over the rest of them.

"Oh hi," called Lloyd. "We're kinda lost here. Do you know where there's a way out?"

"Hmm... I know of a few," he grinned. "But you wouldn't want to be leaving now."

"Oh wouldn't I?" He drew his sword and smiled at the man.

"Ha ha ha! Put that thing away boy, don't be silly."

Lloyd looked incredibly insulted, then frowned and pointed his sword at the man. "Excuse me! Who the hell are you anyway?"

"Oh I love this part!" he leaped up from his seat and spun around, his cape flowing behind him in a circle. "I," he boomed proudly "Am Grendel."

A stifled snort of a laugh came from Zelos, and he turned away, trying not to laugh.

"What?"

"Sorry it's just... It's a funny name," he laughed.

Grendel smirked and pointed a hand towards him, palm-out. "Shut up."

Melted rock rose up from the ground, wrapping around Zelos' hands and feet and solidifying. He was dragged down to the ground by his hands and hit his head on the floor, hard.

"OWW! You bastard! What was that for?"

"I thought I said shut up?" More stone surfaced this time twisting around his head and solidifying over his mouth. Sheena thought about making a joke of thanking Grendel, but decided against it.

"MMMMFF! Mmmuuummmfrrmrmr!"

"That's better. Now... Where was I? Oh yes! I am Grendel. This is my right hand or sorts, Garm," he said and pointed to his left where a familiar looking angel now stood.

"You!" cried Lloyd.

"Yes, him. I had him bring you here for a bit of fun. I'll admit I'm quite impressed that none of you were killed by my traps. I was hoping to make a little game of it, but it's boring when no-one dies... And you! What's her name again? Raine! My traps are not basic! How dare you? I was quite proud of them..."

"You seem to be quite proud of your own voice to me," Raine called back, a slight grin appearing on her face.

"Well yes, that too. Infact I was actually looking forward to this part the most. I get to tell you all my diabolical plans! It's quite exciting really!"

"You're a bit eccentric aren't you?" asked Sheena.

"Oh no little girl, I'm not eccentric. I'm insane. Completely mad."

She flinched at what he had called her, and once again found herself trying with all her might not to strangle someone.

"Now where to begin... I suppose the beginning would be best. Now I've been around a pretty long time. I came to this planet... Oooh let's see... Must be more than two, maybe three thousand years ago now."

"Y- Are you a half-elf?" Raine cried.

"Hey hey hey! You don't get to but in! I'm in the middle of a story here! But to answer your question... I suppose I could be considered a half elf. The other half isn't human though. Far closer to the species you have here called Dwarves or something. Anyway-"

"Look! We really don't care about your life story or whatever!" shouted Lloyd. "If you're not gonna let us go then we'll just have to kill you."

"Ha ha! Aaaah Lloyd you're great. So funny. But alright... If you really don't want to hear it the exit is that way," he pointed to a corridor opposite from the one they had used to enter the room.

"Thank you." He turned to leave, but the moment Grendel was out of his sight a blade was pressed against his neck.

"You didn't let me finish. The one condition is that you have to die of course," he whispered into Lloyd's ear, laughing manically.

"I think... Maybe we could stay for a while." said Lloyd.

"Good." In an instant the blade was gone, and when Lloyd turned back to the throne Grendel was already sitting comfortably in it. "Right. Now as I was saying before, back then Mithos was pretty much in charge of this planet. I suppose to make a long story short, we weren't on the best of terms for obvious reasons and well... He almost killed me. He even managed to put some kind of seal on my power which has finally almost worn off. But as you can see he didn't kill me. You see mind-control is one of my specialties and I found that the decayed state of his soul, and all his angels under him, made him incredibly easy to control. So from that day onwards he was my puppet, and a useful puppet he was too. His plan to rid everyone on this planet of their souls was of course my plan to control all of their minds. I'm surprised Kratos and that other one didn't realise actually... Anyway then you lot came along and spoilt everything... But... It's okay now. I forgive you, because I've found a new method. Sorry... Am I boring you?"

"No of course not... This pointless story is incredibly interesting," called Sheena.

"Oh okay, good. These Exspheres you have on this planet... They seem to magnify your own powers greatly. With a few modifications you can make one magnify them without even having it with you. Which of course brings me to my next point. Presea?"

Before Lloyd could even move the blade of her axe was at his neck. _Damnit! I need to pay attention to there. It's such a sensitive area... _He turned his head slowly, raising his arms to show he wasn't attempting anything. Her eyes were glowing a vivid green and suddenly the distinctly green Exsphere they had found made sense.

"Presea! What are you doing?" Genis cried.

"Ha ha ha! The expression on your face was **priceless**! I've been waiting so long for that! Don't worry kid she hasn't turned against you or anything, she's just under my control. But it doesn't even stop there. Look who's back!" he screamed, his voice growing more frenzied with every moment. Kratos now stepped out from behind the throne, grinning madly and Lloyd was once again hit with realisation. It had been Grendel who made his father try to kill him. It really wasn't him all along, just as he'd thought… But then this certainly didn't make him feel any better…

"As you may have guessed these green Exspheres are now devices that can amplify my mind control. Your friends are now my puppets, and soon everyone will be under my control!" He cackled madly. "Man this is going to be fun," he added with a wicked grin.

* * *

A/N: Sorry the chapter ends a bit abruptly... I couldn't seem to get it right. I'll try not to take so long with the next one for anyone who actually reads this... 

Thanks again to all who have reviewed!


	9. Siezed

A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates... School and stuff... Not that anyone will have noticed

* * *

Kratos stood perfectly still beside Grendel, his eyes glowing fiercely. "Your father was a perfect specimen to test the first batch of my Exspheres... That reminds me... I need a name for them. How about 'Control spheres'?" Grendel asked enthusiastically, stroking his chin. 

"Sounds terrible," snapped Sheena.

"Why thank you! Anyway, as I was saying, Kratos' already decayed soul made him an easy target and Presea too to a slightly lesser extent. We did have a bit of trouble with him actually. I believe he managed to fight it momentarily the last time you met, but there's no chance of that happening now," he smirked.

"So... What? You're gonna just make everyone on the planet your mindless slaves!" Lloyd shouted, gritting his teeth as Presea's axe dug further into his neck.

"Oh no, of course not. What a waste that would be! No I think once I have control over most of the population I'll set them to work with the mining... You see before I came to this world I had a number of mining operations going on across this solar system. That also reminds me, I need to check on a few planets once I'm done here... That one that began with an R... Sorry I'm getting side-tracked."

"Don't worry, we don't have anywhere else to be right now," called Raine, dripping with sarcasm.

"You people are so hostile... But I digress… You see this planet appears to have conditions perfect for growing a certain type of very valuable crystal, which can emanate radiant light for… Well… As far as we know, for eternity. I believe you already came across one of them earlier, and they're what's keeping my beautiful face in clear view right now," he said smugly, pointing up to the ceiling where several of the bright white crystals they had seen earlier were jutting out.

"But-! Why do you need to take over people's minds?" Lloyd demanded. "Surely you could just hire people!"

"Ah yes, well… This way I don't have to pay anyone, plus if I wish I can just move workers to another planet. And then there's the small matter that to get the crystals out of the planet's crust efficiently we have to pretty much strip the planet bare. Most people aren't too keen on that bit…"

"What do you mean strip the planet bare?" asked Lloyd, fearing the worst and trying not to move too much as the axe brushed against his neck.

"Think of it like peeling the skin from a potato, only far more of the planet is peeled off I suppose," he responded matter-of-factly. "You see they only really form in the areas far into the planet's crust so we have to get rid of a lot of the planet to find them. Unfortunately all attempts to make them in a controlled environment have failed. Kinda sucks for you really huh?"

"You can't do this! You can't just destroy an entire planet for your own gain! People here have lives, and some of them even have happy ones! How can you joke about destroying the lives of thousands of innocent people?" Lloyd screamed, loosing his temper. He bent back from Presea's axe, ducking under it as she swung it towards her and hitting her hard in the stomach. As he stood up Grendel was already right in front of him however, and he was caught off-guard, taking a blow to his own stomach and dropping to his knees.

"I wasn't _joking_ about anything. I'm completely serious. I'm just mad that's all. Or evil maybe… I've been called evil a few times. The point is, when you're this powerful you can do whatever you like, and no-one can stop you. Why should I care if I crush a few measly peasants on the way? At least they'll be a part of something spectacular; My rise to power I suppose you could say."

With Presea's blade no longer at Lloyd's neck Sheena rushed towards Grendel, her cards drawn, Regal and Collette doing the same. Genis and Raine began to chant their incantations as they gathered the necessary energies to cast their spells and Zelos rolled around on the floor desperately trying to free his hands from the solid stone that bound them.

But the second Sheena was within arms reach of the cloaked madman she was sent flying, seemingly for no reason, before Regal and Collette followed her. In a split-second Raine's staff was snapped in half and Grendel stood right in front of her face, grinning madly. He spun around, taking her legs from beneath her with a kick, catching her as she fell back, only to throw her towards the nearest wall.

Genis, clearly angered by the sight of his sister being so brutally attacked, lashed out at the man with his kendama, but the chain was cut almost as soon as it had left Genis' hand, and Grendel hit him hard on the side of the head with the flat of his blade, knocking him far across the enormous hall to roll in the dirt.

"I hadn't wanted to hurt you like this, but you're all just so stubborn… I really wanted one of you to ask why I was telling you all this too," he sighed, carefully sliding his sword back into it's sheath. "Go on! One of you ask me. Please!"

Lloyd coughed from his position on the floor. "Fine… Why?"

He gave a ridiculously wide grin. "Because I'm going to kill you all," he laughed. He spun round suddenly. "Aaaw no… That didn't sound right… How about- O.k wait… Ask me again."

Lloyd sighed and placed a hand on head forehead. "Why?" he growled, clenching his fists violently.

Grendel was silent for a moment. He crossed his arms and calmly said "Because I intend to kill you."

He added a small laugh at the end for effect.

"How was that? Good? I thought it was pretty dramatic," he smiled.

Raine raised her head from the floor groggily, placing a hand on her forehead. "You're pathetic," she snapped through gritted teeth. "You act just like a child, ordering other around while you toy with people's lives!"

"I'm just trying to have a little fun!" he cried, laughing hysterically. "Besides, how can you of all people call me pathetic? Running around trying to save the world? You should know you can't make a difference! You're completely insignificant."

"Can't make a difference?" screamed Lloyd. "We beat an entire army of Desians, Cruxis, whatever you want to call them, we fought loads of summon spirits, we united two whole… Worlds? Or something… I'm not sure what they are…"

"Dimensions?" Sheena suggested.

"Yeah, those. We re-joined two of them! How can you say we're insignificant? That we've done nothing?"

"Well whatever. You can't stop this. You're boring me now. I think I'll just let these three take care of you," mumbled Grendel, spinning around on the spot and walking slowly back towards his throne, where he sunk down lazily and rested his chin on a hand. He drew his sword and twirled it playfully, staring coolly at the faint green tint of the blade for a while before pointing it towards Lloyd. "Do what you like with them," he sneered.

Kratos and Garm hopped down from beside the throne, walking casually towards them to stand beside Presea. She brushed some dirt from her clothes and stared back at them blankly as she lifted her head, matching the faces of the other two almost perfectly.

Sheena and the rest of the group had gathered around Lloyd, each of them drawing their weapons and standing ready to face the three mindless slaves that stood before them, as they did the same.

"Think we can beat them?" asked Sheena.

Lloyd stayed silent for a few seconds before returning "Yeah… Yeah we can…"

She sighed, agreeing with his new-found pessimism, but raised her cards despite herself. She certainly wasn't going down without a fight.

As the three puppets drew closer pain seemed to rip through Kratos's body, causing him to cry out and drop to one knee, putting a hand to his head. Garm stopped instantly and turned around to look at his master, whose face looked just as puzzled. Stepping over to Kratos he could see that his glowing eyes seemed to be flickering on and off, changing rapidly between a deep green and their natural brown.

He slashed suddenly at Garm, who jumped back just in time, the sword cutting a thin line into his chest. Garm ran at Kratos with a twisted snarl on his face and kicked him hard in the head, knocking him across the hall, unconscious.

The two remaining puppets ran at the group now, who looked even more confused that Grendel, but they were forced to stop again as sharp knives whizzed past both of their heads. A flurry of keen blades and stars rushed at Garm as a blue-clad ninja dropped from the ceiling, and over a dozen more followed.

Zelos had somehow managed to get onto his knees and, noticing that Presea was distracted by this turn of events, threw his rock-encrusted hands at her as hard as he could, knocking her aside and collapsing onto the floor once again.

"Mmmff bffmch!"

Garm took a few steps back as he managed to deflect most of the knives with his sword, but he was soon forced to duck away and dodge them as several of them cut into his arm and legs.

Grendel punched a hand through the arm-rest of his throne as he stood up, his eyes blazing with fury and his sword already drawn.

The shinobi in blue raised his hand as a signal to the rest, and they quickly surrounded Lloyd and the others. One of them quickly grabbed Zelos from the floor and got back into position, and then with a flick of the wrist they were all devoured by an enormous veil of smoke.

Grendel growled loudly and swung his sword down in the direction of the massive cloud, the force of it blowing away most of the smoke, but there was nothing there. He spun round and kicked the throne, shattering it completely and sending silvery rubble scattering across the ground.

"I-" Garm began.

"I don't want your excuses you fool! Get a party searching for them now, and I want to know how the hell he managed to break free again!" he screamed, pointing towards Kratos' limp body.

"Y- Yes..." he murmured, and rushed off down the nearest corridor.

There was silence for a moment as Grendel slowly walked towards Kratos, lying unconscious on the floor, an expression of pain still on his face. He roared loudly once again and threw his sword straight into the nearest wall, embedding it deep in the rock.

"I will make you submit... Bastard," he added, kicking him firmly in the stomach.

* * *

A bit short, but it would have been a bit awkward to end it later I think...

Thanks to Jana-Yggdrasil for reviewing!


	10. Moonlit seat

A/N: First off let me say for all those who are actually reading this (Yes, both of you) sorry for the delay. Had tonnes of work to do due to the beginning of a new school term, but this chapter is up now, and if you're lucky there'll be another one soon.

And thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!

* * *

Raine couldn't quite place the sensation. She almost felt as if she was blinking… A particularly long blink of course, but a blink nonetheless. In any case she knew here eyes were open. She could just tell. Besides, she could see the dark… If that was possible? 

Suddenly she felt an enormous urge to really blink, and after struggling against it for a while she did so. There was a whirl of colour and light in front of her eyes, before everything was suddenly sucked into place. Trees, sky, Genis… Floor? Where was the floor?

There was a loud thud as she landed roughly on top of Lloyd.

"Oww," she groaned, realising after a few second where she was and leaping off of Lloyd, her face suddenly rather pink. "Sorry," she mumbled, turning away.

"Don't worry about it," Lloyd laughed, rubbing his head. A loud smacking sound came from behind them and they both spun round.

"Mmmmmm!!" Zelos cried, desperately trying to rub his face, which had a bright red hand-print on it.

"Right… Your head just happened to 'fall' there," Sheena groaned, crossing her arms and walking towards the ninja dressed in blue, who was waiting patiently a few metres away.

Collette frowned at Zelos who replied with an innocent look and screamed "MMM TMMM!!"

"Long time no see Orochi… How did you find us?" Sheena asked, smiling but still a little confused.

"Well… I'm not really supposed to tell you this but… There's sort of a… Tracking device in your clothes," he answered, grinning nervously.

"I should've guessed," she sighed.

"Well we can't lose the heir of Mizuho can we?" replied Orochi, his tone suddenly far more serious.

"I gue-"

"Hang on a minute! We-… I KNEW it! I always suspected!" Raine screamed, grabbing a hold of the nearest ninja and shaking him violently. "We teleported didn't we? I knew that smoke bomb thing was just for show! How do you do it? How!? I **must** know!!"

The ninja turned his head towards Orochi, looking like a Mouse who had just bumped into a hungry Lion. Orochi shook his head and the ninja desperately attempted to prise Raine's fingers from his shoulders, managing to cry "Sorry- Trade secret!" in between shakes of his entire body.

"In any case," Orochi started, turning back towards Sheena. "We've been keeping an eye on Grendel for a while now. His puppets have been showing up all over the place along with those green Exspheres, and quite a number of the population have been turned now. It seems they're just acting normally for now, but we're keeping tabs on all of them as they come."

"I see... Well he's obviously up to something. How come no-one decided to tell us about this before?" Sheena frowned.

"Well- To be honest we didn't think he was going to end up being much of a threat... Obviously we were wrong about that. Plus, err..." he leaned a little closer to her. "The chief kinda... He told us not to interrupt you two," he whispered, glancing over at Lloyd.

"Why? Wait- WHAT!?" screamed Sheena, spinning around to look at Lloyd, who had a rather puzzled expression on his face, before quickly turning back to Orochi. "I'm gonna kill him," she growled, clenching her fist so hard that her knuckles went white.

"Why? Do you not have feelings for him?" Orochi asked sincerely.

"I- Well I-" began Sheena, before turning back and realising he was grinning, even through his mask. His smile was so wide it practically left the sides of his face. "Oh shut up you," she mumbled and turned away again. She could hear his muffled laughs even with her back turned.

While Raine shook every ninja she could get her hands on and Sheena tried to avoid everyone's gaze, in the fear of instantly turning scarlet, Collette attempted to free Zelos from his rocky shackles. After hacking away at them for a few minutes with her chakrams, even her brutish strength only managed to chip away a few small blocks of the stuff.

"Mmrry Mmmeerm Mreeegmmm," he murmured.

"What?"

"MMRRY MMMEERM MREEEGMMM!!" he cried.

Collette sighed and dropped her chakrams to the floor. She stood up and looked around for a few moments. Suddenly she jumped slightly as if an amazing idea had found it's way into her head, snatched Zelos up from the floor with one arm and flew off in the direction she had been looking.

"Mmmerm gmmm?" he tried to ask.

"You'll see," she smiled.

She stopped next to a large rock jutting out of the ground, and turned Zelos so that she was holding him by his shoulders, his feet pointing upwards, like some kind of club.

Zelos took a few seconds to adjust to being upside-down. _Floor… Rock… Am I- Upside-down? Why-_

"MMMMMMMMMRR!!!" he screamed, as Collette swung his legs at the rock as hard as she could. The enormous boulder cracked in two, toppling over onto the grass and a cloud of dust surrounded them.

Lloyd and the others heard the loud crashing and dashed over to investigate. When they arrived and the dust had cleared all they saw was Collette holding Zelos' shoulders and his legs flailing around in mid-air. She turned him round to hold him by his legs and got ready to take another swing.

"No!" cried everyone present, including Sheena, though a little more casually, and Zelos, whose cries were still muffled by the bonds over his mouth.

"I was just kidding! I wouldn't really smash his head into that thing," she giggled.

"But you would smash his legs into it?" asked Lloyd.

"Well… At least he can stand up now," Collette smiled cheerily. Zelos tapped at his mouth with his rock-encased hands, and groaned something completely incomprehensible.

"You know I think I prefer him like this," added Sheena thoughtfully.

"Definitely," Raine offered. "I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before."

Collette tried tugging the gag on his mouth from both sides, but it refused to break no matter how hard she tried. "Sheena? Could you try asking Gnome?"

"Ugh. Do I have to?" she muttered.

"Pweeeeeeeaase?" Collette whined, making he eyes as huge and watery as possible.

"Aaauh fine! Just promise me you won't ever do that again."

"I promise!"

She uttered the necessary incantations before adding the final touch. "I call upon the servant of Mother Earth! Come, Gnome!"

The earth around Zelos instantly swallowed him. A hole was left in the ground for about a second before it slowly closed itself up. Everyone stared at Sheena, her expression one of absolute horror.

"Err… That wasn't supposed to happen, I swear!"

Before anyone could say another word another hole in the ground appeared from nowhere and Zelos was thrown up out of it to lie sprawled on the floor.

"Uuuaagh… You didn't have to be so rough," he groaned.

Sheena smiled to herself as she realised what had happened. "Thanks Gnome."

She heard a soft laugh carried by on the wind. Or on the earth? Carried by something… In any case, she heard it. Collette's squeals of glee at the sight of Zelos unharmed snapped her out of her musings, and she became aware that the sun was going down quite rapidly.

"Orochi, where exactly are we?"

"Well… We were aiming for Mizuho, but it looks to me like we're closer to Asgard. Someone must have done something wrong," he said, glaring at a randomly selected ninja, who stepped behind Regal to shield himself from view.

"Right… Well in that case, shall we get to an Inn and we can figure out what we're gonna do next from there?"

"Sounds like a great plan to me," shouted Lloyd. "Plus I'm hungry. Let's hurry!"

* * *

As they dismounted their Rheiards at Asgard's entrance it was already clear that the town was far more lively than it had once been. With the threat of both the Asgard ranch and the town's wind demon gone people seemed far happier to live here. 

Orochi and the other ninjas had left them when they got on their Rheiards, waiting until Raine was a far enough distance away before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

They decided to treat themselves to one of the more extravagant Inns in Asgard, since they felt they could use a decent night's sleep after trudging through all those endless hallways. They paid for their rooms, ate a meal that tasted like heaven, and crowded into a single room to discuss what plans they could possibly come up with at a time like this.

"I think for a start we should go through everything we know so far," suggested Raine.

"Well I think so far we know Kratos and Presea are under mind-control, we have a bunch of psychotic angels that all appear to be stronger than us, and to top it off we have our insane emperor-of-the-universe wannabe who seems to be invincible," Sheena replied matter-of-factly. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, I think that about sums it up," Raine sighed.

"Oh, and he's gonna use weird Exspheres to take over the world," grumbled Sheena.

"Aaaaaw come on guys, look on the bright side! At least we're still alive," said Zelos cheerily.

"How long exactly do you think that's gonna last?" asked Sheena, adding "What? I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking!" at their shocked looks.

"I hate to agree with Zelos, but he's sort of right," replied Lloyd, prompting a little squeal from Zelos. "So we may not have a way of beating him right now, but we need to focus on what we _can_ do. Come on, we've beaten loads of idiots like this guy!"

"O.k, so what exactly _can_ we do?"

"Well… Err. I was sort of hoping someone else could help me there," he sighed.

"Well he said he was using modified Exspheres," Raine answered "So I'm guessing he's collecting them from around the world. All of the human ranches are destroyed now, so he has no way of making more. Perhaps it would be best if we continued to hunt down and destroy as many as possible."

"Well it's certainly better than sitting around here doing nothing, and it's about the only plan we have right now. Everyone agree?" Lloyd asked.

There was a resounding "Yep!" from Zelos, Collette and Genis.

Sheena hesitated for a moment, only briefly annoyed that everyone was joining in on her journey with Lloyd, before saying "Sure, sounds good." Or at least she told herself it was only briefly…

"Regal?" Lloyd said, noticing that Regal hadn't said a word since they had left the caves. He was sitting on a bed staring blankly at the floor. Suddenly he turned his head towards him.

"Oh- I- Sorry. Yes, of course," he mumbled, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Alright then. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning, so everyone make sure you get a good night's sleep." Said Lloyd, turning and walking out the door to find his own room.

Once there he closed the door and was instantly hit by the realisation that he didn't feel remotely tired. He lay down his swords by the side of the bed and sat down on it, hoping to get some kind if inspiration to sleep, but nothing happened. After a couple minutes it was obvious that he wouldn't get to sleep, so he decided to take a walk around the town. Walking around at night always calmed him down it seemed.

Again, no sooner than he had closed the door he heard a scream.

"That was Sheena!" he cried in horror. He bolted down the corridor without even going back for his swords, but relaxed as soon as he turned the corner and saw Zelos being flung out of a doorway, straight into a wall.

"That wasn't funny!" Sheena screamed.

"It was hilarious! You should have seen the look on your face when you lifted up the covers!" he cried, laughing hysterically. She slammed the door in his face as he tried to walk back into the room, almost hitting him on the nose.

Zelos turned to Lloyd and said "She's all yours," motioning towards the door and winking, before turning away and walking away down the next corridor whistling.

Lloyd stood there for a few seconds thinking. _… What the hell was that supposed to mean?

* * *

_

Sheena opened her eyes. _There's no way I'm gonna get any sleep tonight…Especially not when the very thought that Zelos was in this bed makes me feel sick…_ She sighed. The cold fresh air of Asgard would calm her down… Definitely.

She had intended to go and sit by the old wind shrine but at the sight of a bright red speck on the other side she stopped suddenly. _Oh come on this is ridiculous. You can't avoid him forever!_ She turned as if she was about to leave but after a few seconds she took a deep breath and hopped up onto the giant stone tablet.

Lloyd was sitting with his legs hanging over the edge on the opposite side. She approached him slowly and silently, a small grin creeping onto her face. She waited until she was right behind him, then quickly but calmly slipped an arm around his neck and placed a hand on his back.

"You're lucky there aren't Ninjas after you Lloyd Irving," she whispered, then leaned closer until her face was next to his. "Or we might have lost you."

"Sheena?"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist," she replied, loosening her arm around him.

"Don't worry about it," he said. He turned his head slightly and their cheeks touched, changing Sheena's face instantly red as she realised how close they were.

She coughed nervously and moved beside him, sitting down on the edge of the stone slab. "Mind if I sit here for a while?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. It seems we have similar tastes in after-dark activities," he smiled.

"If you call sitting here doing nothing an activity I guess," she laughed.

There was a strong gust of wind, and Sheena suddenly realised she was cold. She slid a little closer to Lloyd, and then there was silence again. _Man we must really suck at conversations…_

"… Lloyd…"

He turned towards her.

… _Damn… I didn't actually have anything to say_

"Err… I'm… Sorry about Kratos…"

_What the hell was that!? What a stupid thing to say!_ She wanted to kick herself in the head.

He sighed. "I'm sorry… I shouldn't have mentioned it," she replied quickly.

"No, it's O.k… I know it's not him now and… That's more important to me now…" he said.

Sheena put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him and he smiled. She closed her eyes. All of a sudden her lips were against his. His soft, smooth heavenly lips, pursed against hers… She lingered there for a moment, her arm sliding slowly down his back, before pulling away.

_Did I do that? Or… Did he kiss me?_ She wasn't sure… She couldn't remember the last 10 years of her life suddenly, nothing but that moment.

She looked at Lloyd's face. "I-" He looked stunned. _Shit, I kissed him!_

She stood up quickly. "Err… Sorry I- I'm… I'll go and get some sleep now!"

Lloyd's head followed her as she stood up and began to walk away. He tried to say something but his voice caught in his throat and he ended up coughing something that made no sense.

"Wait!" he finally managed to cry, but she carried on walking with her head down.

He sat there absolutely paralysed. Suddenly months and months of things people said and did made sense. _Man… I really am kinda stupid…_

He managed to tear his brain back to reality momentarily and realised that he was just sitting there and Sheena was already out of sight. "Damnit!" he screamed, jumped up and rushed across the giant shrine after her.


End file.
